Hey there! Sorry about the super-cheesy title; I just couldn't help myself. x-P
I've been randomly jumping into conversations here on the knot for the past few weeks or so, without formally introducing myself... since there isn't an international board here (anymore??), I think Interracial is where we most fit in. So. Here I am, introducing myself (us?)!
We met in 2004, when we were both teenage exchange students in Europe. We hit it off as friends immediately, though we didn't start actually "seeing each other" until 2008. It's funny, because we decided to try a relationship after not seeing each other, physically, for four years, and for a long time, we had only a long-distance relationship, which everyone claimed "couldn't work" and was "just going to fall apart." Well, after traveling back and forth to each other, we decided that it DID work, and I moved to Tel Aviv to be with him.
We got engaged probably two and a half to three weeks ago. I'm a professional dancer, and he arranged with the owners of the dance company that, after one of our performances, when everyone was taking bows, he'd come up onstage, singing our song, and propose to me. It was so crazy! On that particular day, it was the last thing I was expecting! The girls who run the group were completely laughing at me onstage, when I was looking around, wondering what was going on! :-P
About my background: I'm from a family that's half Irish-Catholic (very Irish and traditional; if you go to Cork, you see a bunch of guys who look like my grampa, dad, and uncles, as well as a local watering hole with our family name), and half German-Lutheran. I was raised in an extremely conservative Lutheran church, which the German side of my family actually helped to found, when they came to the USA about 3 generations ago.
About his background: He is of Sephardic Jewish heritage ("Sephardic" meaning more Middle-Eastern than, say European or Eastern European). His mix is Greek, Turkish, and Iraqi, with a good smattering of Jewish-Spanish. He was raised without any particular religion; he did go through his bar mitzvah, of course, and his grandparents were rather religious, but his dad and brother are atheist, his mother is a Kabbalist, and he is, for the moment, agnostic. He comes to church with me on Easter and Christmas.
We are extremely fortunate, in that both of our families, and all of our friends, are completely accepting of and happy for our relationship/engagement. Also, we don't have any problems with blending our ethnicities and beliefs.
So... hello!