guess who met Idan Raichel in Antwerp?

Yes, that would be me, and yes, I will continue to brag about it for as long as I can. The Idan Raichel Project is an Israeli world beat group that combines musical beats primarily from Israel and Etheopia, and here is my wonderful experience from last night:

After a day and a half in Brussels (which I liked, sure, but thought 1 day sufficed and really have no desire to run back there), Mo and I headed to Antwerp, which I really really liked, for the Idan Raichel concert. After spending a lovely afternoon walking around animated Antwerp, and then getting COMPLETELY lost (let's all give a big "up yours" to Google maps, and a big thank you to the family that owned the random bar that helped us pull up the website of the concert venue to find the actual address and called us a cab) en route to the concert, we take our seats in the FRONT ROW of this venue, the Zuidsomethingindutch, off on the left, just IN FRONT of where Idan himself sits and plays the piano and sings beautiful music. And then, the magic started. What a lovely, beautiful, concert full of music that reverberated deep into my bones. *sigh* I got about half of it on video, no joke. And, Idan winked at me twice-- I thought I imagined it but no, Mo confirmed it.

Afterwards, we stuck around, and met some other Jewish girls from the States, Europe, etc, who were working for a company that gets Jews all over Europe together to celebrate umm, Jewishness! Like European BBYO weekend get-togethers. Finally, Idan and the group came out. We shook hands, took pictures, talked, got autographs-- basically, things that made me very, very happy. I didn't know what to say so I just kept saying "thank you so much for your music." I really, truly meant it. As we were talking with Idan, one guy shook his hand and said "alright, so, we'll see you in Paris in February" (when the group's new album comes out) and Idan said "I hope so." Naturally I asked him "wait, really, you're going to Paris?" and he said "I think we are," to which I responded "I study there! I'll be there" and he smiled.

I should also put in a tiny bit of background here-- Antwerp, apparently, has one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe. Literally not even 5 minutes after leaving the train station yesterday, we saw many orthodox/hasidic men in their fur hats and long black robes walking around. We saw Hebrew written everywhere around the diamond district, and stopped in Jewish bakeries and supermarkets. It was a really comforting feeling.

with that, I just want to say, if you don't know who Idan Raichel/his group is, one, how are we still friends? and two, just go here: http://www.myspace.com/theidanraichelproject