Last one...

Okay, I'm clearly not going to get any more packing done. And I know tomorrow will be crazy, so here goes.

It's the last night in London and I'm being all sullen and reflective. I think this semester turned out so much better than I had expected. Especially since I had started with very low expectations. Everyone (especially my parents) had told me how this was such an amazing opportunity and how they wished they had been going to London too. I was so worried I was going to have an awful time and everyone think that this trip was totally wasted on me. And I wish everyone gets a chance to travel, but I'm glad it worked out for me too, that I didn't hate it.

I did a lot of fun (and dumb) things here but there's also a lot I learned about myself and life here (let me all sentimental!).

Expectations - I always advocate 'Do whatever you want! Fuck everyone else! Play by your own rules!" and I do believe that. But I've realized how much other people's expectations change my attitude and actions. Like, when I'm in Maryland people say "Oh people from New york are bitches. They're all too cool for everyone and think they're better." So when I'm acting like a bitch I can just say 'well, I'm from NY. I'm supposed to act like a bitch, so it's fine.' And when I'm here people say things like 'Omg Americans are SO friendly and SO nice and warm.' Which makes me strike up conversations with strangers knowing that they'll just be like 'Oh, she's American that explains why she's so outgoing and friendly.'

These are both me. So which is it then?

I think I might keep the overly friendly walk-up-to-strangers-and-introduce-yourself kind of lifestyle in America. I don't know if it'll work the same way but at least I know that I'm capable of it. I think that it's so important to surround yourself with people who have high expectations of you because at least you'll try to live up to that, as opposed to the opposite just because it's easier.

I could write forever about stuff that I discovered here, and how I'm terribly sad I'll be going back to Maryland soon. But I think that's because last semester was really difficult and this won't be the same Maryland I'm going back to because I'm not the same Aviva. I've ridden a mechanical bull, I've sung karaoke alone, I orchestrated impromptu dance parties at Winter Wonderland. And I'm taking all that back with me. And if I forget, I can just look at this blog.

I want to say thanks to my mom and dad for letting me go to London this semester. Seriously, I wouldn't be able to do anything without them (and not just because I ran out of my spending money early November) but they've always tried to give me the very best and whether or not I deserve it, I try to make them proud (drunk roof parties aside), but actually they are the best parents and I'm sorry if your reading this and you think that maybe yours are. That just can't be true.

Also, I want to thank my brother and sister who've faithfully read this and even recruited other (strangers) to read it. I couldn't fathom why someone who wasn't related to me would want to read this but apparently they hyped me up enough to gain readers and I appreciate it. A lot.

Finally, I didn't ask for a lot of feedback from this blog, which I kind of liked because it made it seem more private and diary-like, even though I knew that someone out there is reading this. And thinking...or laughing, or both I hope. And if you feel like it, please leave me a comment on this one. Just to say what you thought.

And I'm glad you came on this adventure with me.

Keep calm. Carry On.

Love,

Aviva

Procrastination and Denial

Oh. Em Gee. I can't.

I'm supposed to be packing right now. Or writing my final essays. Or, I dunno ANYTHING.

Yesterday was my last day at Interact. Well, technically Friday was my last day but I decided to come in for the last magazine meeting and plus I wanted to get my evaluation from my boss. Also I knew that if I stayed home I wouldn't get any work done but once I'm in the office I'm all up on my essays instead of e-mailing nature reserves or something.

One thing that I've been doing these past few weeks has been updating the Facebook and Twitter feeds. Literally, that's all. And it's been AMAZING. Seriously I can make up about 19 Tweets an hour, it's been a job I've been training for my whole life apparently. Periodically New Boss would come out and laugh or say that I have to stop scaring people into coming to Interaction Days or applying for the intern position. These were some of my fave posts:

faithsinaction Interact

Working at Interact is like working at Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory except with considerably less people dying in the chocolate river.

faithsinaction Interact

Interaction's offices now 100% Zombie-proof. It's really your best defense in the apocalypse. Send your CV now!

faithsinaction Interact

Be an interfaith intern and make Grandma proud! Unless your grandma is really racist, then do it just to annoy her.

The magazine's over so for the last meeting, Other Intern and I bought cake (*kosher* cake from Sainsbury which I *JUST* discovered they had kosher food. On my last day. kill me.) and some fizzy drink called Schlour. Unfortunately, only 3 of the writers decided to come. Much like the usual meetings, you would think that the promise of free cake would entice them. Also the fact that I would be LEAVING but whatever. It was nice, kind of chill. These kids are all very quiet...so I suggested afterwards that maybe for the next magazine cycle they could have more talking time for the writers to get to know each other. It was a pretty awkward party.

But afterwards, New Boss and Other Intern gave me a box of chocolates and a really nice card. Like, really nice. At my last internship they also had a going away thing for me but they gave me a can of coke they had gotten from the vending machine. This felt pretty heart-felt and I really miss working there. I've realized that I actually like working with others (go figure) and they seemed really sad that I wasn't going to be working there either. My boss told me that he would friend me on Facebook which is sweet....except for the fact that I've been writing posts about him for a few months. Awkward.

He wrote me a REALLY nice evaluation though, surprisingly since I literally did not do much. "Excellent interpersonal skills, good commitment and a sophisticated understanding of interfaith work." I don't know about sophisticated but, that seems vague and nice. So I'm happy. I only got a 4 out of 5 in "flexibility" though, I have no idea what that means but whatever, I'll leave it.

Last night I FINALLY went to see Platform 9 and 3/4. My friend went with me, but basically "because I knew you needed someone to take a picture of you and it made me sad to think that you would ask a stranger to take a picture of a grown woman next to it alone." Thanks.

It was pretty cute, it's exactly what you think. A cart in a wall. But I'm glad I went.

There's so much more I still haven't seen, Trafalgar Square, London Dungeon, Harrod's. But I know I'll be back and have so much more to look forward to.

I really want to write a good-bye post and sum up everything but I think maybe I'll do that in a little bit. I don't want to admit that I have less than 18 hours left here...

Brushes With Death

Okay, so this isn't my fault. I had a whole long post yesterday but my laptop decided to just shut down my internet for a hot sec therefore deleting everything and then I was too wrapped up in this essay I was writing to fix it.

And by "essay" I mean Seinfeld episodes.

I was talking about my LAST SHABBAT EVER which I spent at Chabad (which switched locations to Baker Street which was nice of them.) It was v. cool because I had recognized a few people from Sukkot so I said hi (except the French people who did not say hi after I awkwardly waved to them. Whatever, forget the French.)

During dinner this boy comes up to me and he goes "Um, did you go to Flatbush?" and I said I did and apparently we were in the same grade and never met. He was like "I'm surprised, I thought I knew everyone in our grade."

I had no such notions, I met our class president when I was in Israel after we graduated. I wasn't friends with a lot of the Syrians in Flatbush and to be honest I didn't really know the difference between them, plus it didn't help that they all had the same name. So it's not really my fault. I just love meeting people here that I could've met a hundred times in NY.

So Saturday night I was invited to a Christmas (holiday...?) party hosted by my roommate's friend. A lot of my friends went. I had written about it all in the post that had gotten deleted, and I was thinking about whether I should write it again since it's not very pretty. But then I thought that as an honest blogger, I can't just write about my cute little trips to museums but stuff that's not so cute too. Like getting kicked out of holiday parties. And while I won't include everything that went down, here's just some highlights.

How to Get Removed From a British Christmas Party:

1. Start by drinking copious amounts of alcohol (but also make sure you sleep through lunch so you have nothing but Twix bars in your system.)

2. Force the DJ to play some Maccabeats music despite the fact that no one knows who they are.

3. Explain to everyone who the Maccabeats are. Also explain the story of Hannukah. And Passover. Make sure to include some cameos by Martin Luthor King.

4. Fall down the stairs.

5. Throw a pumpkin out the window.

6. Climb on the roof. Almost fall off the roof. Be grateful for all eternity that your friends saved you from falling to your death.

I'm not saying these things are cool, I'm just saying they happened (and you can see it, I think my Hannukah History Lesson is videoed on someone's iPhone.) Oh, and also make sure to call the host "gay for having a poster in his room of two tigers fighting. But I won't apologize for that and would probably have said it regardless.

Anyways, Sunday I woke up to hear a recount of the party after I asked my roommate if I made much noise coming in last night to which she answered "I only woke up because you made so much noise falling down the stairs."

So I spent most of Sunday nursing various bruises and cuts. While trying to write a 10 page paper which I can certainly say is probably not my finest work. It's OK since this theater teacher hasn't liked me since I spelled his name wrong on the last essay. My bad.

Today was our last theater class which was tragic. One, because I'm going to miss it so hard. And two because he made us go see Deep Blue Sea for class but we never got to discuss it so I'll tell everyone HERE what I thought of DBS.

Deep Blue Sea was a hideous movie and I hated it. I hated all the dumb violin music when NOTHING was happening except pictures of trees being shown. My only wish for this movie was that everyone kills themselves and that doesn't happen. I don't care that British people LOVED it or that all the elderly ladies in my theater there BY THEMSELVES cried at it. I don't like that they judged me for eating popcorn too loudly when I wasn't eating loudly it was just that there was no sound in the movie, just meaningful glances.

I want those 2 hours of my life back. The end.

Two more days left.

Last Thursday...

Hello faithful blog readers (I'm looking at you Russia)

I hope everyone had an amazing 24 hours.

Last night was our VERY LAST PLAY. One Man Two Guvnors which was hella good. Seriously, even though it had quite a lot of physical comedy (welcome to England) there was hilarious audience participation and improv worked into the play which made it all the more delicious. Everyone had decided to dress up for our VERY LAST PLAY (my theater class, not everyone in the theater) so boys in suits and girls in dresses (and pearls if your name is Aviva, a lace hat if your name is Ruth). After the show we went out to a nice pub nearby where we drank wine (or pear cider) and just basically sat around being classy. A long way from the play when I put my feet on the seats and got yelled at.

Your little girl is a lady now!

Anyways, this morning I woke up and decided class was not for me today after indulging in too much classiness last night. So I snoozed a bit longer. But not for too long since I did have work.

I came into work at 1pm and for some reason said a big "GOOD MORNING!" to everyone

New Boss: It's afternoon. Maybe morning for you. You probably woke up at 11am.

Other Intern: Wow that's really judgmental

Me: No, he's right. I skipped class today.

Oh New Boss you know me so well.

Did not have much to do today. Just looked up some universities who'd want our magazine. My boss offered that we should just send it to them without asking, I asked what would happen to them and he said the universities would look at it and be like ''eh, these are OK'. He clearly has a lot of dedication to this project.

Tonight however, was my last Thursday (I hope you're not going to get sick of me going through my LAST EVER phase of the trip). Instead of going to more clubs, I picked a more low-key route. So my friend and I went to a kosher Indian restaurant in Golder's Green which was SO nice because I've had pasta for the past 6 meals.

Afterwards we went to see the movie 50/50 because I am in love with Seth Rogen and JGL. It did not disappoint. Had some heart and not too crude for a Seth Rogen film. I actually teared up a little when he died.

(JUST KIDDING! I'm not going to give the movie away!)

Anyways, after the movie we went to Ish bar for LAST KARE- ok...I'll stop. Jackson and his friend and another UMD boy came.

But this is important.

The very first Thursday here we went to Karaoke (as you remember OBVIOUSLY). I remember having a good time, sitting in the back with another guy watching people sing. "go on up and sing!" he told me, "No, way I am soooo not drunk enough."

I had never done karaoke alone before. And I wasn't going to start in front of people I had *just* met. No, I'm OK watching people. There was NO way I was going up there. EVER.

Tonight however, we were sitting around and I just got a slip of paper, wrote down "Aviva - Come Fly With Me" (It was 'crooner karaoke night') and handed it in. I was going to sing alone for the first time.

Why?

Because I wasn't afraid anymore. Even if I was awful, I didn't know any of these people, half of them are drunk anyways. And my friends would be cheering me on (which they were). But even if they weren't, I knew I could do it because I've done so much this semester that I never thought I could do. Because I'm not afraid of what people think of me as long as I'm doing what makes me happy.

I always think of a quote by Lady Gaga where she says "I don't care about what people think of me, I care about what they think of themselves." Because if we all stopped worrying about what other people were thinking about US, we'd be able to care more about how other people are doing.

So I sang, and it wasn't perfect. It was probably not very good but it doesn't matter because it was fun. And no weirdos kissed my head this time.

But a man DID come up behind me and audibly sniff my head. Why?

I'm beginning to think ISH is just full of strange people.

Until next time my little lion cubs, go out there and be fearless.

More New Boss Stories

Ah! One week left. Uncool.

Nothing happened yesterday except funny conversations with New Boss so I'll just post them here:

New Boss: Next week's the last magazine meeting! We'll have to have some nice mince pies or something.
Me: I'll bring the tequila shots
NB: Maybe everyone should bring something of their culture to the party.
Me: Ok...that's still shots for me though.

NB: I'm so tired. The eco-faith meeting last night went so late.
Me: WAIT. You guys have meetings when I'm not there?!
NB: Yes, hard to believe we can get any work done without you but we manage
Me: It's harder to believe you get any work done when I AM here.

NB: The magazine looks really great guys, really professional
Me: Really? if you saw it on a campus would you take it? Would you pay for it?
NB: Definitely
Me: Can you give me the money?
NB: Well..I mean..I won't. Now.
Other intern: I mean, how much does an Elle cost? 3 pounds?
NB: You're asking me? I don't buy that
Me: Because you have a subscription right? You don't buy it individually.
NB: A gift subscription actually so I don't pay at all. But when I used to get magazines about dinosaurs and precious stones.
Me: That's the funniest thing I've ever heard in my whole entire life.

My friend told me that my work sounds so fun. But in reality it's like 9 minutes of fun when I'm allowed to talk to people and 8 hours of Cracked.com

After the meeting, New Boss said I should make sure to come to work on Thursday because that's my evaluation day apparently. The worst thing about that (besides for the fact that I haven't anything productive to evaluate) is that when I first started I really DID work hard. But that's when Old Boss was there. And by the time NB took over, I was already ah, comfortable. And he's gonna be writing the appraisal. Good thing I'm so charming.

Today I went coat shopping since the one I've been wearing for the past 2 years is getting a little worn. Plus it's not even keeping me warm in London, I can't imagine what'll happen to me in College Park (aka yes I do know because it's what what I endured last year when I wore that coat in CP). Anyways my roomie and I went to Topshop (which I could live in) and i bought a FUNCTIONAL if not glamourous coat (as per instructions from my mom). Fashion in London is pretty different than in Maryland. I'm excited to bring back all my new clothes but then I start worrying about what people will think and then I remember that I don't care what people think of my clothes and it's fine.

Tonight is our last play in London. It's a comedy (FINALLY) which will hopefully end everything on a high note.

Walking in a WINTER WONDERLAND

Ah thanks for your patience loves.

It's getting down to the wire here and I'm trying to squeeze as much Londoness into 9 days as I can.

This past Shabbat I went to Danielle's house which was really nice. Except for the fact that she had all new roommates whom I hadn't met the last time. But I thought I had so I basically went into their rooms to be like 'Hii how are youu??' until after a few minutes of polite chit-chat they said 'So, ah...do I know you..?". Man those Brits are polite.

For dinner we went to this Rabbi's house. He's very involved in JSOC and I had met him at a lot of events. We were the first to show up and we were waiting in the living room talking to him when his young son came in with a chessboard and asked him to play. The Rabbi said "Maybe ask Aviva if she'd like to play."

Me: Oh, no thanks. I'm awful at chess. Wizard's chess I'm amazing at though! Haha.

Rabbi: Sorry...wizard's chess...?

Me: Um...the magic chess...where the pieces are alive? And ah kill each other? (notice the lack of me explaining that it's from Harry Potter and it seeming like I play magical chess)

Rabbi: Oh, I don't think I know that one...

Dinner was nice, some people there I had met at the Brighton Shabbaton. However they were all involved in JSOC or the UCL Hillel and they spent a lot of time talking about stuff that's happening at the university that I obviously did not know much about and they didn't think it was necessary to explain it to me. So Danielle and I just sat and talked amongst ourselves.

Saturday lunch was OK. We ate at her friend's house. Mostly everyone was some sort of young doctor who deemed it necessary to criticize America (as they are wont to do) so I think it was about that time I started pouring more wine. I can't have these conversations anymore. They're hurting my soul. Although we did play a game where you had to name all 10 countries with 4 letters in their name. I got Peru....and a glass of wine later I yelled out Peru again. Not to be annoying but I literally forgot it and then remembered it again. Peru was the only point I got. Bet you can't name the rest.

On the way home from Danielle's I was on the bus waiting for my stop. I came to the first floor of the double decker bus as we got close and I heard music blasting. There was a man sitting there playing a literal radio with knobs. I was looking at him because I didn't realize it was 1991. He was covered in tattoos and was middle aged. I think he saw me looking at him so he reached out and put his hand on my arm, I turned around and he said 'Fancy a cuppa tea love?'. Thank the holy baby Jesus that the doors opened on Baker street just then so I was like 'aaaaaaahhh....no' and ran off.

I can't tell you what happened the rest of Saturday night because I don't want to be arrested or kicked off this program so we'll just leave it at that.

Sunday I went to see Ed Byrne. He's an Irish comedian whom I absolutely LOVE and decided to spend 20 of my pounds on tickets. I didn't think any of my friends here love him 20 pounds worth so I went alone. Which I hardly ever do. What was not nice was the fact that they didn't have my ticket printed for me at the collection window and made me wait on the side for 45 min where I made friends with an Austrian woman and a couple from Ottawa (this is my life now, talking to strangers wherever I go). But it was worth it because Ed Byrnes is HILARIOUS. He speaks SUPER fast and with a thick Irish accent so a lot of stuff flew over me but no big. I would totally recommend everyone listening to his stuff.

Today, my roommate and Jackson and I went to WINTER WONDERLAND. Which was AMAZING. Mamash. Amazing. It's the whole outdoor amusement park with Christmas themed rides and stalls and games. Inexplicably there was a giant pirate ride...but everything else was North Pole-esque with Santa statues everywhere. Some were cute (Santa with 2 caroling children) some were horrifyingly traumatizing like a GIANT Santa statue with crazy anime eyes with long lashes....next to him was an open bag with another Santa inside, this one with less crazy eyes. Almost like an evil robot Santa kidnapped the real one and stuffed him in his own bag with a frozen smile on his lips. Nightmares.

Weirdly, there was also a man selling Kiddush cups and plates with Jerusalem sky lines on it. I asked the man where they were made to see if he was Israeli since he was pretty dark. He had a Indian accent and told me they were made in Jerusalem. The stall looked like it belonged more in Nachclat Binyamin but whatever. They were pretty. I didn't buy anything but hot chocolate with Bailey's and cool FRIENDSHIPPP BRACCELETTSSS with my roommate and Jackson.

We're super cool.

Tomorrow's work. I can't believe I'll be wasting 8 precious London hours trapped in office. Maybe we can take an interfaith field-trip....to Trafalgar Square.

Brunettes with Mild highlights really do have more fun

So Reasons To Be Pretty was probably the worst play I've seen here so far. At first I thought "ah finally a play that's not written in English from 1885 Ireland. But takes place in 2011 America." But then I thought "OW MY EARS why are these accents so freaking bad? Why are the 20 something characters calling each other bro and dude every 5 seconds?" and then "I hate every one of these characters. The girls are bitches and idiots and the guys are assholes and losers. I hope they all die in a fiery blimp accident and no one ever finds their remains."

The scenery was nice though.

What was NOT nice was the woman next to me who had never heard of a shower. Seriously lady, class it up a little, you're in the theater. And people next to you have working noses.

Today I got to my autobiography class to find no one in it AGAIN. Finally 3 other students showed up and we waited for 45 minutes just talking which was nice. I love how they pronounce 'thing' as 'fing'. It doesn't make any sense but it's cute. Finally my teacher popped in and was like 'Oh hey, we're in room BP322. Didn't you get the e-mail...?" Yeah, we got the e-mail. We just decided to come back to the old room for nostalgia's sake. She was apologetic and said they had been in that room last week too but since we didn't know she won't give us absences. Which was cool of her. In the elevator in the tube later I heard this man talking to a student. He said "So do you love London yet? Wanna stay here forever?" to which she replied "Uch no, I wanna go back to NY". I gasped audibly.

Today at work I got a surprise. Other Intern had been exiled to the conference room. What's this? A new pretty intern taking her place in the main office? That's weird. I can understand how I'm moveable since I'm not contributing but Other Intern is! Maybe this organization should get a bigger office room and get rid of all this hierarchy tension. Or probably no one else feels it because as I put down my stuff in the conference room I said "Wow, I see you got kicked out of the office now too..." and Other Intern didn't know what I was talking about. New Intern seems nice though...even if she did take that seat too preemptively.

New Boss had some sort of Interfaith event to go to so he left at 3. He said something like "So..um...you have stuff to do then?" to which I nodded to because I was in the middle of catching up on my Cracked articles.

At 4 I told Other Intern that I wanted to leave early, she said "Oh..I guess you can."

"When New Boss leaves...who's in charge? I think it should be me and I say I'm leaving early."

"Sure it can be you. You're an intern. I always forget you're not getting paid."

"Yup and now I'm the stand-in boss. See you Tuesday!"

I had a hair appointment today. I decided to dye my hair blonde despite the protests from my friends. (Not family, because as Shira put it "you're not going to listen anyways are you?"). Not because I thought I'd look good blonde but because I felt like doing something different. Plus the pinkish streaks in my hair were starting to annoy me.

Fortunately, the hairdresser who was in charge of this expedition decided that blonde is too harsh and put light highlights in my hair. It's not as dramatic as I was expecting but it actually looks nice which actually IS a change for once. So it's acceptable.

I never got my hair dyed professionally. It takes forEVER and it burns a little too. But you get to sit there all up in tin-foil and read magazines for 2 hours. So now I'm pretty much an expert in the destruction of Ashton and Demi's marriage.

Since I spent all money on my hair tonight I didn't go out. But I have 2 weeks (TEAR) left and the second Shabbat ends I am not sleeping. I am not wasting another precious moment here before I have to return to Maryland.