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.

The Woman in Black

Good afternoon class.

Yesterday was work day. Yet as you recall my sister was here and loves waking up early to do things. So we went to the Sherlock Holmes museum (again). As you might also recall, last time I was there I was so enthralled with the fact that you were allowed to touch things that this time I went a little crazy and saying things like 'touch ALL the things!' while rummaging through Dr. Watson's medical supply bag. Obviously this alerted a worker dressed as maid who politely yet harshly told me that I should remember that I am in a museum. Ouch.

Work was boring. I still don't have a place to work really so I'm constantly being told to move from conference room to inner office to chair next to the outlet. It's exhausting but I don't actually do anything so I understand. I like working in the private conference room though so no one can see me doodle Minnie Mouse on my arm while pretending to research nature reserves.

Last night Shira and I went to see a play called The Woman in Black (I know, I don't see enough plays). It's being made into a movie with Daniel Radcliff and was titled the scariest play in the West End. I had never been to a horror themed play and I was thinking 'psh, how can a PLAY be scary?'. Uh, I can tell you how it can be scary...but I don't want to ruin it. But I think they did an AMAZING job. The only thing that was annoying were the entire 8th grade class field trip sitting behind us who were talking and screaming when it wasn't a scary part. I'm sure I was never that annoying in 8th grade. I'm still excited for the movie though, it looks crazy plus D-Rad. So how can that be bad? He doesn't even have his annoying magic to save him this time.

This morning Shira left at 5am yet decided to text me 7 times from the airport. Sheesh Shirs don't you know I need 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep? I'm seeing her in 2 weeks anyways when I go to Israel. I just realized that my blog only has 2 weeks left. Then people in Malaysia and Germany will have to find something else to read. I'm going to miss this secret public journal I've kept, although I won't miss when I tell people a story and they say "yeah, I read it on your blog." Double awk.

I had my script writing class today where I got some brownie points for know the feminist blog Jezebel. Sometimes I feel like my teacher is really impressed by the things I say and sometimes I feel like she thinks I'm a racist sheltered dumb American. Ah, well. At least I'm not like this Scottish (cousin-dater) boy in my class who said something along the lines of "Rich means Jewish in America."

Tonight we're off to see Reasons to be Pretty for my theater class. I'm pretty sure I could just go to the theater everyday. Shira suggested that maybe I could just review plays for a living. Which actually sounds like something I could be pretty good at. As long as those plays have Robert Sheehan or Daniel Radcliff in them.

Brighton Early

So today's blog goes out to my friend Mollie who told me that if I don't update my blog she'll stop going to class since she'll have nothing to read. Please go to class Mollie! Don't end up like me.

I had a very nice Shabbat with my sistah at a family friend's house in Pinner. It's so nice eating food that isn't pasta and mozzarella cheese. Even though that's nice too.

I heard a very funny story from the wife though that I'd like to share because every time I say it in my head I laugh. So she was on a flight to Israel and all these Charadim are gathering in the back and talking loudly, as they do. There was an American girl who was trying to sleep and they were all crowded around her chair so she politely asks them to move since she really had to sleep on this flight and they were being very loud. They ignore her. So she tries again. They ignore her. So she goes "RIGHT" and picks up her shirt, wearing nothing underneath. And they RUN.

How amazing?

Another awesome I learned this weekend was that there is a Friends cookbook written in 1995. They had it at their house and it's selling on Amazon for 1 dollar so I think everyone should buy it for me on Hannukah.

Sunday Shira and I woke up bright and early for a trip back to Brighton. We were so lucky that it was GORGEOUS out. The pier and beach were beautiful. The rides were amazing. And by amazing I mean I cried embarrassingly on the Haunted House, screamed like a baby on the roller coaster and disgraced our country on the mechanical bull.

It was too good to pass up the opportunity to ride it and those lucky enough to see the video on Facebook know that it did not end well for me.

Shira asked the operator how long I needed to stay on to get a prize.

"30 seconds"

Me: "30 seconds? Psh, that's nothing. I'll be on for 10 hours. Get the prize ready. I'm from America, we invented bulls"

"*biggest eye roll of the century*"

Let's see. First attempt: 2 seconds. Second attempt: 1 second. Third attempt: 3 seconds.

The little crowd that formed was very disappointed.

After milkshakes and bumper cars (or 'dodge 'ems' as they're called. It's funny though because when the Brits bump into you, they apologize. It's adorable)

This morning, Shira and I headed out SO EARLY to see Big Ben and Platform 9 3/4.

We ended up at the London Film Museum. Which was interesting since it was this MASSIVE place with hallways full of props from all sorts of movies...most of which happened to be American. Superman and The Mummy and The Simpsons and Star Wars. But there was some cool stuff about James Bond and Alfred Hitchcock and Harry Potter (obviously). We didn't read any of the history they had on the walls, just took pictures with the fun props.

Unfortunately for us however, Platform 9 3/4 is closed due to construction. We couldn't find it at first since it's outside the station. Shira made me ask people where platform 9 3/4 was, I was totally expecting them to say "think you're being funny, do ya?" but they didn't. I don't think Shira will be able to see it before she goes but I'll have to come back.

Tonight we got some traditional Fish and Chips with a few friends. Also something that had been on my list. It wasn't the classic pub style fish and chips because, let's face it, it was a kosher restaurant in London which means really nice and expensive. Still counts.

Now we're waking up tomorrow so Shira can see the Sherlock Holmes museum. I'm glad it's just 10 steps from where I live because I'm exhausted. Also there's a general strike for Wednesday and I'm not sure if that means I have class or not since most of the teachers at London Met are part of that union. Either way I'm not going to do the reading for class. (Also I can't stop saluting.) In good school news, I got a B+ on my theater paper. Hooray!

It's Shira's last day tomorrow but also a Tuesday which means work from 11am - 7pm. On Friday I walked into work and saw New Boss and Other Intern wearing purple shirts. I was like "Oh, I see I didn't get the memo about wearing purple today"

New Boss: "maybe you should read the e-mail I send you once in a while"

Me: "Eh, no thanks"

Lila Tov!

A

Crazy Stupid Farm

Hello guys and gals in cyberland

Not much happened yesterday. Went food shopping because the one and only Shira Woolf is visiting and the only thing I had in my cabinets was some spanish rice and gummy bears. Part of a wholesome breakfast. I dragged my suitcase to Kosher Kingdom to fill up. As I was paying, a Israeli cashier beckoned me over and asked me where I was taking my suitcase full of food (on vacation?) and I explained that I lived out on Baker St so I have to shop in Golders Green. She asked me if I was doing OK with Shabbat and Kosher when I explained that I was studying here ("What classes are you taking?" "Theater" "That seems like a waste of time") and invited me to spend Shabbat at her house if I ever get "sick home", which is really nice and REALLY Israeli.

After a depressing Irish play last night I came home and spent time with my sistah. It's nice that we get to spend Thanksgiving together since we barely ever the chance to.

Today I woke up early to get to class on time but it turns out it didn't matter because class was apparently cancelled (just like YESTERDAY's class was cancelled and no one told me). It's OK because I hadn't done the assignments for either class but I did show up when no one else did so that's points right? And not really no one else showed up today, Africa boy was there as confused as me so we walked out together. He tried to apologize to me AGAIN for not caring about 9/11. "Well, not NOT caring...but my family was really poor and I was working for free at a cafe and my boss tried to show me and I was too tired to watch". Seriously?? How can he be apologizing?? It really made me feel awful.

But working at the farm today made me feel better. It was an actual farm this time. And I got there because of cancelled class which New Boss was happy about since he was desperate for volunteers since this minister was coming. My job basically was to be paparazzi for this guy. Me and 2 other photographers, the one from his office and the one from the Interfaith department. He pushed one wheelbarrow of dirt from one end to the other and that was it. I was taking a picture of him and my boss before he left and introduced myself (I didn't say anything else I swear!) when he said he "must return to the unreal world, I don't think I'm dressed for more farming ha ha", well why did you wear a suit if you knew you were coming to a FARM?

I know, I know, publicity stunts and all that but come on, don't pretend like you're really helping us for some good pictures man.

I on the other hand had a GREAT time pretending to work while taking pictures of other people. It was about 11 volunteers this time...mostly unemployed younger people but hey, good for them to do this with their free time. Unfortunately Interact didn't feel like buying Kosher food for this event since "I don't think there are any Jews here" according to NB. Good thing I brought my own stuff then. I actually did have an interesting conversation with a guy about faith. He told me he was looking into becoming religious, any religion and he's been doing a lot of research into Abrahamic faiths. He was really into the stuff about Jesus and the Messiah and the second coming and what Muslims believe. I explained that Judaism isn't really about the Messianic age but more so about the past and present. He still wanted to talk about the Messiah so I'm pretty sure he just wants to make sure he's on the right side when Jesus/Mashiach/etc really does come.

I made Jackson come volunteer with me today 1. I know he wasn't doing anything productive 2. I wanted my boss to see that I found volunteers. Obviously I didn't expect Jackson to get told to stop chasing the ducks because they were getting traumatized or for him to tell my boss that I "had a boner for Harry Potter". Ah, what can you do with wild-card friends?

But seriously, this was one of the best days so far. Just to finally feel comfortable with new friends and my coworkers and meeting new people (not so comfortable with the scary ass ducks who were following me around though or the cow that licked my shirt).

After some "farming" I went out to dinner with Shira and Danielle at a really fancyface place. I've never had Thanksgiving in not-home place before. Actually that's not true I had it in when I was in Israel at some hotel in Tzfat (was it Tzfat Gaby? Or the Kineret?) I only remember teasing the only British girl that she had to celebrate with us, not realizing how Thanksgiving had very little to do with American/Britain relations. What else is new?

As per usual traditions, we saw a movie tonight (although not in theaters, tradition rules might still allow it...) We watched Crazy Stupid Love and now I'm going to have sweet Ryan Gosling-y dreams.

Happy Thanksgiving my lovelies. (As well to you, people in Latvia and Germany)

Nicky's Last Fling

Bam! Getting a jump start on this whole blogging-on-time business.

Today at work Other Intern was absent which meant that I got to sit in the office finally today instead of out in the common room which is annoying when I'm trying to watch Misfits. Also good because it gave me ample time to talk to my new boss who I mildly stalk. It was a pretty slow day, the internet was being spotty so I spent about an hour drawing a picture for our door that said INTERACT on it, surrounded by peace signs and unicorns. Obviously my boss thinks it's amazing. He was spending most of the day trying to drum up press over the fact that some minister of something is coming to out volunteering day on Thursday at Kentish Town Farm. Apparently he's a big deal but his office told my boss that he "doesn't want to do activities which might get him dirty", er ok Prime Minister Prima Donna. New Boss asked Kentish Town what we'd be doing and apparently it's all mucking out horse and pig stalls, to which NB started cracking up about. I told him not to laugh when he called the minister's office back but when he did he just started laughing anyways. I'll try not to "accidently" push this guy into manure, if he wants to "volunteer" he should do it, not pretend to.

NB also said he's coming for an hour "An hour! What am I going to do with him for a whole hour?"

Me: Don't let me talk to him...I'll probably just say something offensive.

NB: Ok, we'll keep you in the back.

Finally, a boss that understands me.

Since Other Intern was gone today that meant I had to run the entire magazine staff meeting BY MYSELF which was a tad terrifying. Usually she does most of it and I pretend to take notes. But this was all me. Which was also not so good because only 4 people showed up instead of the expected 12 so after the 4 girls told me where they were with their articles...it was up to me to keep the meeting going for another 37 minutes. That was difficult. I told them that the next week we'd be taking the staff photo for the magazine. One girl said she'd be all wonky due to getting her wisdom teeth out. I mentioned that I heard that you get some sweet drugs from wisdom teeth surgery and another girl said 'oh yeah! you should bring some extra drugs to the meeting next week then people will definitely show up!'. I'm in charge of the meeting for ONE day and already I've turned it into a drug trafficking ring. Awesome.

Tonight, Jackson and I went to this event called 'Scratch and Sniff' at a pub called The Book Club. It was the exact opposite of what we expected which was I don't even know. It was in the basement of this place and the entire ceiling was light bulbs but only 3 of them were lit which was actually cool. This event (which we came late to, and cost 12 pounds) was full of artsy hipsters drawing pastels on tiny sheets of paper.

Apparently the game was that you had to smell these slips of paper with different scents and then draw what it reminded you of and then explain it to everyone in the room. We had already come to late and were too giggly to pay attention but people were SUPER into it. People with thick black glasses and fur vests. I'm pretty sure the whole night was just one big commercial for this guy's perfume line. At the end they said we could have half our money back since we were only there for half an hour. Which we promptly spent at the bar.

They had weird drinks called things like "Nicky's Last Fling" and "Shoreditch Twat" and "Tears at Teatime". They were all super yummy and strong though. Now I have no money. But it's OK because any night out with Jackson is good fun.

A week's worth of Awkward

Okay! I know! It's been a week and I haven't updated because I've been lazy and too busy dodging weird Brits to write about it. So we're gonna start from the top.

Wed - I gave in my script for theater SUPER excited for my plot and writing, thinking that my Theater-nazi teacher will LOVE it and I'm an AMAZING writer, the best script writer EVER despite the fact that I've never written one before. Turns out, no I am not the best one "ever" I wasn't even the best writer sitting at my table. She and my class tore the script apart, at one point attacking me personally by calling me sexist. Me? The girl who told people she would specifically come to Shul just to take the Torah from the Ark if they didn't pass it to the girls' side??? Needless to say I choked back tears (like a boss) and silently killed her in my head. Back to the drawing board.

Wed night was play night and we saw The Playboy of the Western World - an Irish play featuring the lovely Robert Sheehan of Misfits fame. We sat literally front row and the play had a LOT of action, not to mention spitting and sweating so that was nice. I started getting into Misfits after falling in love with Robert and now I have something do at work!

Thursday - Thursday night my friend Jackson and I hit up a pub called Waxey O'Connor's. It's one pub with 6 floors and each floor is a different theme. Except the themes are THAT different so I think it was all the same and then they just put signs up that said "Cottage" "Wild West" "Outdoors". It was in an...interesting area as well. I think it was West End and right smack dab in the middle of the red light district. And by red light I mean gay nightclubs. Like, everywhere you looked there were places called Pride and Natural and The Closet. However, there was this yogurt shop called Snog which is apparently a homosexual yogurt shop. How does one make a yogurt shop homosexual you ask? Well stock it with gay employees, have rainbow flashing lights on the ceiling and have most of your clientele be dancers from the clubs next door. The yogurt was surprisingly sweet for being sugar and fat free ("A snog is fat free and good for you!"). After the yogurt, Jackson and I decided to go to Karaoke night at the Ish bar since we hadn't done that in a while. We sang an awful rendition of Katy Perry's Hot and Cold. Seriously, during the song Jackson decided he was going to stop singing and just yell the words. After the song however this British man comes up to us is like "you have the voice...of an angel" and I was like "cool thanks" so he puts his hands on my shoulders and slowly brings me closer (I thought he was whispering in my ear) and kisses the side of my head. So I'm like wait what the actual fuck? And he walks away. So that was weird.

Shabbat - This weekend I went to Brighton with JSOC. I was a little nervous since I didn't know anyone else going but I really wanted to see Brighton so I just hopped on the bus. Fortunately, I did meet some very nice people and Brighton is freaking GORGEOUS. Our hotel was RIGHT on the beach. Seriously, Sat morning I woke up to see the sunrise over the ocean. Everything is so bright and colorful, i was in love.

Friday night I sat with some people who were surprised to learn that I didn't know anyone there beforehand since I kept saying hello to people (or the people I remembered the names of from the bus). It was weird that most of the students there weren't religious. They all had their phones and laptops which whatever, do what you want I don't care (or as one boy said to me "you're religious?? But you don't have that like...judgmental face when I talk to you") but it is a Jewish trip so...it was more like NCSY.

Saturday, none of the cool people I met the night before decided to come back and it was sad. But I got to explore the beach and boardwalk which was amazing. I'm definitely going back when my sister comes.

Sat night I went to see Ides of March with Molly. I needed some non-social time after talking to billions of new people. It was a pretty nice movie, how can you go wrong with Ryan Gosling? After the movie we got ice cream and met some ah,

interesting Brits:

Man in shop: Excuse me miss? Do you read ladies' magazines?
Me: Exclusively
Man: What do you recommend?
Me: Um, Elle and Marie Claire are good, why?
Man: Do they have pics of naked chicks in them?
Me: No, what you're looking for is porn.
Man: Oh ok...what are you doing in London? What are you studying?
Me: Journalism
Man: Are you gonna write something about me being like a sex pedophile or something?
Me: Yes

Man: Have a good night!

Sunday - I woke up ungodly early to volunteer at Camley Street for MITZVAAHHH DAYYYY. YAY. A day when there's a ton of volunteering and free shirts around London which was pretty rad. I was the photographer which was awesome since that meant I didn't have to get into the pond and pull out garbage (damn!). It was mostly 16 year olds volunteering which made me feel super old. But I met the Mitzvah Day photographer who said he'd love to get my pics so hopefully they're good enough to go on their website, which could be great if I don't make it as a script writer.

Yesterday - It was another Internship class in which we learned about Reverse Culture Shock (going back and hating America). I also learned that graduate school here is only one year AND you don't have to take the GRE's. Which sets it for me. I'm definitely coming back. Although I don't graduate for another 2 years so I guess I have time to decide. But yes, I'll be back.

Sorry!

I know I'm super behind on updates! I promise tomorrow I'll have news! News including my adventures in:

Homosexual yogurt shops

Visits to Brighton

Working on Farm with New Boss!

It'll be great, stay tuned!

Surprise Walks!

Today was a surprising adventure when usually I just sit the office all day eating pretzels and reading Jezebel.

I got into work, said hi to Other Intern and New Boss. They were working in the tiny office so I sat outside on the conference table. This was sad because I could hear them talking and laughing so I put on my headphones and blasted Girl Talk (my new obsession. 71 min mash-ups of billions of songs. Not so conducive to my already short attention span. Now I can only listen to 8 songs at a time.) Other Intern came out and told me that we had to go to East Acton to pick up some paintings this girl had made for our Interfaith Art Show (or something arty that's happening in January...I won't be there so I'm not sure what it is.)

So me, Other Intern and New Boss walked to the tube. It was a little awkward walking there since we were, like out of the office with our new boss. Plus I don't have a filter and say nonsense things. I'm also mildy obsessed with him since he has Shawn Hunter hair and looks like he should be in a 90's sitcom. He was asking me about London and I told him I wasn't going back and he shouldn't tell the authorities if they ask.

On the train, I told Other Intern and New Boss about my weekend and how I'm the only one on my program so far who's run into anti-American sentiments. They were laughing and I told them that if they went to New York people would LOVE them and probably give them discounts on stuff because Americans think Brits are adorable. New Boss asked me what Americans think of Brits and I said they're painted as polite and never get excited and drink tea all the time. New Boss said "I feel like the British are the bad guys in a lot of American films" and I said "really?? Which ones?" and he says "American history ones", "you mean like ones about the Revolution?" "Yeah...like 'the British are coming!'.

Unfortunately we had to change trains like 3 times and then wander around East Acton for 20 min trying to find this girl's house. I was wondering why the Project manager and 2 employees had to take the train all the way to the middle of nowhere for this girl when I saw that we had to carry two HUGE canvas paintings and two small ones back to Camden. I was really regretting going into work.

New Boss and Other Intern carried the two big paintings (I offered!) while I carried the small ones. Which I promptly got fingerprints all over the edges. And had some small chunks of paint fall off. Awkward. But they made it back in one piece.

I didn't do much the rest of the day. The internet tends to break and when it does I take pics of myself on my Mac's Photobooth doing crazy faces and seeing if anyone notices me. They don't.

Also, at one point New Boss comes over to me:

Me: 'Sup bro?
New Boss: You know you can't really say that to me...
Me: Sorry, maybe it's a cultural thing.
New Boss: They let you say 'sup bro' to bosses in America?
Me: Yes.

Ah, he loves me.

At tonight's meeting we had a photographer for the Times come. She was really nervous but told us how she had been a head-hunter and then decided to just quit and become a photographer, entered a contest to photograph for the Times and now she goes to Pakistan and Australia on assignments. It was kind of a one-in-a-million story but basically she told us that she never took any courses in photo-journalism and that gives her an edge because she doesn't stick to any rules. She just takes pictures on instincts and that seems to work for her. I had been thinking about majoring in photojournalism but I think I'll stick with journalism and then teach myself to photograph.

When she finished and everyone was leaving I told her that I just bought my first SLR for this trip but had forgotten the camera instructions at home so I've been just playing around with it. She told me that's how she learned too and really that's the best way to learn to take your own style pictures. I said that I had been thinking about going into photojournalism but I also didn't have as much experience as I do with writing. She told me that when she first started, someone at the Times told her that no one knows what they're doing, even people with years and years of experience confront new situations every day so in some ways it doesn't really matter.

(On a side note, I have to write a 15 min script for my class tomorrow. It's in a pretty rough draft stage but I'd love to get some feed-back. If you're interested, comment and I'll send it to you and/or post here. I'm nervous, this class is like vultures)

2b or not 2b

Yesterday I went to a Puppy Festival. And I'm pretty sure that means my life will be going downhill from now on since not much else can compare to that.

My friend mentioned today that we only have 4 weeks left in London. I can't believe I have 30 days left here. It feels like I've done nothing, I could spend so much time here. But I know it's not because I love London more than NY but because I am totally free living in the middle of an exciting city with a fake job and easy classes. I know that if I stay in semester abroad-mode here and not go back to Maryland, I'll just have to get a real job and take real classes and try to date these uch, British boys. I guess it's almost time to head back to the real world.

But not today. Today was a tour of the Shakespeare Globe Theater with my theater class which was great since I missed the play we saw there due to Rosh Hashana. It was really cool, even though I already knew what it looked like thanks to Mary Kate and Ashley's Winning London. But they didn't let me play on the stage. Also in that movie, they have a scene where they're playing in this store called Cyber Dog in Camden and in reality that's partially a sex shop. It's not a very realistic movie (well except for the scene where the Buckingham Palace guard risks his career to help a stupid teenager obviously).

I learned that the term 'Box Office' comes from the fact that people used to drop their fare into boxes at the entrance of the theater and the more pennies they got, the more successful the play. We got to sit in the 'posh boxes' as well, where royalty and gentlemen sat. I also remember learning that in the old days the third tier of seats was where prostitutes entertained clients but that was in an American theater class so I'm not sure if it still applied.

It was a super dreary day. Getting dark at 4 and being all gray and foggy. So, basically London weather finally. Still haven't gotten a chance to wear my super expensive rain boots yet.

After the Globe we had another tour of the National Theater which wasn't as exciting. We got to see the sets (which we had seen when we went to see the plays) and go backstage (not as exciting when you work at Maryland's theater school and you work backstage all the time.)

But we did get 15% off at the gift shop so I bought a book from The Guardian called 'How to Write' covering topics such as fiction, children's books, journalism, comedy and scripts. I'm hoping it'll come in handy. They didn't have a section on improving your Facebook page though which was disappointing. It's basically my main form of writing these days and I'm addicted to the attention. Although when people tell me I'm good at Facebook it makes me feel like I'm bad at real life but hey, you can't win them all. Although I think if anyone ever tells me I'm bad at real life I can be like I've been to a Puppy Festival, your argument is invalid.

Tonight I stayed in and baked caramel cookies with my roommate. I only burned 4 of them and the rest were delicious. It almost makes up for the fact that I have my fake job tomorrow.