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.

Have You Realized...?

Amazing Shabbat. 5 stars. Definitely one of the best ones here so far.

I stayed by my sister’s friend in Hendon and we ate at her roommate’s cousins and a local family for the meals. In the beginning, when people would ask us how we knew each other we would say how she went to school with Shira but eventually she would just introduce me as her friend staying with her which was now true and really nice.

Danielle’s also from NY and studying in London for the year. She shared with me some of her “Have you realized…?” discoveries such as:

“Have you realized that in London, they don’t say ‘I live on Brent and North Circular, you HAVE to say Brent STREET and North Circular ROAD”

“Have you realized in London, if someone offers you something and you say ‘Thanks, I’m good’ that means you want it, not the opposite”

“Have you realized that in London, the main rooms in people’s houses don’t flow into each other but always have doors separating them?”

It was nice having someone who also had been noticing these weird quirks Brits have. And this weekend was ALL about how different Americans are.

We went to a LOVELY family for Friday night dinner, the parents are Swiss and the children were adorable. Their 14-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl were super polite, smart, funny, the boy could juggle, and the girl did origami. I swear these kids could take over the world. The 14 year old was telling me how he learned about America by watching Friends and when I said my favorite was Chandler he said “I’m a Joey man myself” and kept calling his dad Chandler when he would make bad puns.

After dinner, we played this game called Snatch, which is basically Anagrams where you have to make words and you can rearrange letters and steal other people’s words. He told me Danielle had beaten him last time to his surprise since “I was playing against an American! I thought her words would be limited to ‘hotdog’ and ‘hamburger’”. I was determined to win.

(A little known fact about me that you guys definitely don’t know. I am SUPER competitive in board games. You don’t know this because I never play them for fear of losing friends with my aggression. Surprise. But it was all out with this game.) I started strong, stealing words left and right. But what made it infuriating was how polite this British boy was! Every time I stole one of his words he’s say “Brilliant! Good job!” “Wow, take it that was great!” and I would say things like “Suck it England!” and “USA! USA!”. I had to remind myself to begrudgingly congratulate him on his steals while also reminding myself that I am 7 years older and I should not get so crazy for a board game.

Saturday, I woke up after an amazing night sleep. I hate that I’m used to my bed on Baker Street, where I can actually FEEL the springs against my back when I sleep. We went to her roommate’s cousin place and they were Italian. They had a German woman over and two British guys. The only annoying thing was that they would all switch from Italian to French to German to English to Yiddish to Hebrew since everyone except for me in this country speaks 90 languages. At least I could follow the Hebrew. It was quite an exciting meal since both guys, well into their 20’s and one married, got EXCEEDINGLY drunk. To the point of being sick…on the window.

I left to help in the kitchen and when I came back, the serving dish of potatoes was on my plate since there wasn’t room on the table. I said “Oh wow, all of these for me? Thanks” and one guy said “Well, I know you’re American so…” I wonder if they would have said that if I were ACTUALLY overweight.

One also asked me if I was religious and I mentioned that my father was Rabbi and he was visibly taken aback, “WAIT! What? But you have a nose ring!” I get that a lot and I really don’t see the connection. I can be religious and have a piercing. I looked it up, thanks, I appreciate the judgment though. I wanted to say “You have a black hat? How? You just drank 5 shots of whiskey and put your arm around that woman on the balcony!” But I didn’t because I’m classy like that.

I hope all of you had enlightening Shabbats in America as well (and to my Russian followers, I’m mad that you speak Russian AND English)

Portrait of a Hipster

I’m beginning to get a little frustrated with my autobiography class.
Usually it’s around 5 or 6 students which is a small enough class already but yesterday I showed up and it was just me and the Scottish guy who dated his cousin. And the teacher. I wouldn’t mind so much but since they’re both older and have lived in England for a long time, they’ll talk about British serial killers or politicians or toys they had when they were younger and I’ll be like ‘Er…mind explaining?” The scene was basically them cracking up and me being like 'I'm American.'

Our assignment yesterday was all about The Soundtracks Of Our Lives. We wrote about our first concert, the first CD we bought (or record if you are them) and had to play it for the class. This is how I got to introduce them to All American Rejects (the first concert I went to, in which my best friends ditched me and I spent the whole night crying in the back) an N*SYNC’s album No Strings Attached. Those might not be the best bands in the world to make others listen to but it’s better than the Dr. Who theme song of 1975 that Scottish boy played like 5 times.

London Met University is the most confusing and frustrating building in the universe. Instead of the efficient system of handing in your essays, like mine that was due yesterday, you have to throw it a big red bin in the undergraduate office and they sort it out after. I guess that’s easier than giving it to your teacher…? But to GET to the undergraduate office, first you have to know what zone your in. Each zone is a different color and they are dispersed throughout the bridge-connected buildings. Zone red might have stairs that lead to the 5th floor and zone blue might have stairs that lead to the 2nd floor and zone green has stairs that lead to the middle of fucking nowhere and when you turn around, they’re gone. No one can help you and God save you if you need to print anything. I will never complain about Maryland again.

Last night was my roommate’s birthday. The girls next door threw her a “Highschool Stereotype” party where everyone had to dress up as a nerd, jock, prepster etc. I was decked out in my hipster attire: ripped tights, boots, jean shorts, scarf, raybans etc. It was fun taking my fancy camera and stalking people all night with my “artsy photographs.” People were dressed up, one of the girls who lives there painted her face black as she was a “baller”. I’m pretty sure that’s a hate crime in America…..

Anyways, finally time for Shabbat. Have a good one my loves!

Daylight Shamings

I spent my entire day yesterday thinking it was an hour later than it was. So I woke up an hour early, got to work an hour early and ate lunch an hour early. It didn't matter much until I was in a staff meeting with my new boss (whom I had actually thought was my new co-worker until he informed me he was replacing my current boss, who forgot to tell me she was leaving.)

We were in the meeting when I noticed that the clock on the wall was room was an hour late..."weird" I thought "They forgot to change it for daylight savings....but Ounie's watch is wrong too...and Richard's...and Ounie's Mac...weird that everyone forgot to change their time."
I look up to find my boss looking at me expectantly, "Well? What do you think?"
"Um...uh...I think all the clocks in here are wrong. They all say 3 o'clock."
"It is 3 o'clock...maybe it's YOUR time that's wrong?"
"Ah...that makes more sense."

All in all, probably not a good first impression.

At the magazine meeting, one girl mentioned it was the Muslim holiday of Eid and I asked her what that meant. She explained that Abraham almost sacrificed his son so every year they slaughter a lamb and focus on "cutting the bad things from their life." I asked why it was 4 days and she said that Muslims only have 2 major holidays so they make them long.
I could probably Wikipedia for more information but that seemed pretty interesting. I mean, I know the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac but it's interesting that Muslims found that story so inspiring that they created a holiday around it.

After work, I was super tired and decided to sit, watch House, drink wine and enjoy the fact that all my roommates were out doing various roommate things. But my friend texted me to come to student night at the Rocket so I shut my laptop, hopped on the tube and was there in 15 min flat. I'm going to miss living in a city so much.

Except that my friends are not as speedy as me and made me wait 25 min for them.
I don't mind waiting for them and if it was any other venue I'd meet other people to entertain me but it's weird making friends at a bar despite what you see on How I Met Your Mother. It's weird having other people think you're there alone to make friends or pick up guys or whatever. I couldn't just sit at the bar and what? strike up conversations with people getting pitchers for their friends? You can't just sit there when there's a ton of pushy students around you trying to get drinks. So I stood around with my phone looking impatient so everyone knew I was waiting for friends. Another successful maneuver to show strangers that I'm not a weirdo, score.

Anyways, I have to run soon. It's a Wednesday night and you know that's play night! Tonight's show is Broken Glass an Authur Miller play. Then after, my roommate and I are going to clean the bathroom. Ah, the life of a socialite diva.

Jezebel

Today I'm not going to talk about my day. Namely because 1. not many interesting things happened today (although I try to find something different in every day) and 2. This is something that's been on my mind for a little bit.

I've been reading this blog, Jezebel for a little while now, ever since my roommate shared with me all her feminist blogs that she follows. And while there's a lot of interesting articles about a range of topics like fashion and psychology, but there are obviously a disproportionate amount of feature pieces that attack Victoria's Secret models, Kim Kardashian and sexist things that radio talk show hosts say about women. And I'm all for attacking those things because I agree with Jezebel that they make women feel bad about themselves, which they shouldn't.

Sometimes it feels like the anti-media assumes women are so delicate, fragile and that one picture of Rihanna in a bikini will make us either collapse in self-pitying tears or fly into a rage of feminist aggression. There's no middle ground. I'm sick of opening up a magazine and reading 3 articles of how to lose weight and 2 articles telling me why I shouldn't care what THEY want me to look like. It's irritating that people still think that how you look will make you happy.

And I know this because I already know the secret to happiness. And that is:

Stop comparing yourself to other people. Their story is NOT your story.

That's it. If everyone (not just girls obviously) realized this, there would be no jealousy or insecurity of any kind.

If everyone could open up a magazine, see a beautiful model and instead of saying:

"Oh my God, she is BEAUTIFUL. No...it's photoshop, obviously...but still even without it she's skinner than me and prettier, I bet she's making a ton of money doing nothing and I'm sure guys are all over her all the time. I'll never be like her"

They could say:

"Wow, this woman is really really gorgeous. I appreciate her beauty like I would a really nice painting. But the fact that she's on magazine covers doesn't mean that I'm less pretty or that people love me any less, we don't really have anything to do with each other."

I think we live in a world where, thanks to Facebook, Twitter and TMZ, we are constantly being bombarded with updates on everyone's life, pictures of them on vacations or at parties, notifications on other people's relationship and statuses about the awesome things they're doing. We carefully craft our Facebook pages to make sure that everyone knows that we too are keeping up with the fun. And according to surveys and studies, it's making us MISERABLE.

Because knowing what other people have, make what we have seem less and that makes us feel incomplete, not good enough. And in today's society that's not acceptable.

Not to make this into a Dvar Torah here but I never understood the phrase in Perkai Avot "He who is rich, is happy with what he has." It seemed like Ben Zoma is telling us to settle. 'Don't reach any higher, don't set goals, just be happy with what you have and that's the end of it.'
It wasn't until I heard an alternate explanation that it made sense to me.

"He who is rich is GRATEFUL for what he has."

Because when you're grateful for the things you have, you can still reach higher and whether you fail or not, that doesn't make you less thankful for the things you have at the moment. When you're grateful, other people's successes don't make yours any less. For some reason, this made more sense to me than 'happy'.

So my message for all of you today isn't to just blindly be happy with what you have. We should always strive for the best in life, whether that happens today or in a year from now. But we shouldn't make other people's happiness make ours any less.
That girl with the 250$ pair of shoes doesn't make yours any less nice.
The cute couple on the park bench doesn't make you less likely to find someone.

The things you love in your life are YOURS. And don't let a stranger, magazine model or FB status take that away from you.

Guy Fawkes Night

So tired from all this Guy Fawkes celebrations, but more on that later.

Shabbat was nice. I went to a friend from elementary school that I reconnected with here in London, Leah. She works at the JLE (Jewish Learning Exchange) so we went to their Arabian themed Friday night dinner. Met a lot of people who were interesting. Such as the Kenny G-look alike that sat next to me at dinner. Tell me if this is normal.

Him: Is that good?
Me: Yeah, it's good.
Him: Are you done? Can I have the rest?
Me: Um...you can get yourself some since it's a buffet
Him: Nah, *grabs my plate and utensils and finishes it*

That's why you shouldn't be nice to people, because they will follow you around and eat your food. Another attempt at making friends went like this:

Me: I love your glasses. I have weird glasses too but I didn't wear them.
Boy: Thanks I think. Where are you from?
Me: New York, you?
Him: Toronto
Me: Oh, Canada...gross....Sorry. I'm bad at making friends.

Aside from that, I did meet two cool girls. And ate a lot a lot of rice. So

Last night was Guy Fawkes night. I've never seen V for Vendetta and all I know is that Guy Fawkes tried to blow up parliament, he was caught and now they blow up...fireworks? I could hear them all the way home to Baker Street. My friend Jackson and I were on our way to Paddington to see more when we changed course and decided to check out haunted pub instead. After finding it, it was obvious it was just a very very old pub...which was cool but nothing haunted happened. But in the haunted spirit we ordered Bloody Marys. It was fun. I realize that I don't need a million friends to hang out with or a big group of girls to have fun, all I need is one person who talks in TV show quotes and likes to judge people around us. That's all I need.

Everyone was going to a Guy Fawkes student club night so we headed back to our apartment to get ready. But after drinking more, getting on the tube and almost getting there Jackson was just like "Do you really want to go to this club or do you just wanna go back and watch TV?"

So that's what we did. In fancy club clothes.

And that was my Guy Fawkes night.

ice Bars are Cool

So my autobiography class is just one non-sequitor after the other. We play these little memory games and then write about them. Like "let's talk about your favorite toy as a child. Then we're gonna write about it' 'Let's talk about our first loves, then write about it." It makes for some interesting conversation as yesterday on boy (well 'boy', he was like 40 years old) told us all a story about how he dated a girl for 2 years and then found out they were 3rd cousins. They were both from the same small Scottish island and surprise surprise, everyone's cousins.

Yesterday my teacher introduced the topic of 'Where were you when..." and automatically started with Spetember 11th. I was surprised seeing as that the room was my teacher from New Zealand, the Scottish guy who dated his cousin, the quiet boy from Africa, the British girl wearing leopard print leggings and me, the American. And out of all that, people suggested 9/11. Everyone told a little something about watching it on TV or hearing it at school, then the African boy was like "I was working in a restaurant for free since they don't give you a job until you work for no money for 3 months and my co-worker was like wow did you hear what happened in NY? And I was like whatever, that's sad but I don't care." then he looked at me and said "I'm sorry, but like, it didn't affect me, I didn't care." I was pretty surprised that he was apologizing to me especially since there's stuff going on in Africa that I don't care about. I asked my teacher why she chose 9/11 when there was a much more recent bombing in London. She said that it was just the first thing that came to her mind since her friend was American and very upset.
So we moved on to other events that I either wasn't alive for or didn't care about because they were British, like JFK getting shot, Elvis dying, Princess Diana dying, 7/07, Amy Winehouse dying. Lots of dying, no one remembers good events.

Last night my friends and I checked out an Ice Bar. A bar completely made of ice which gives out drinks in cups made of ice. They also hand out ponchos and gloves. I had been to one in Eilat, Israel and it was actually cooler than this one. It had an ice slide, but we did have to watch a movie about global warming and we didn't get free drinks so....pros and cons. Also, spending 45 min in freezing cold temperatures made the balmy London night later seem almost tropical so we walked around Oxford checking out the Christmas lights and decorations, stopping in Hamley's to play with the giant teddy bears. I still have to say that Toys R Us in Times Square is better but it's not a competition.

This Shabbat I'm going to my friend's house and to an 'Arabian Themed Friday Night Dinner."
I hope you have a good Shabbat too!

Ghost Pubs are Impossible to Find

Dear Diary,

Why do I wake up 2 hours before I leave home if I'm only going to be rushed getting dressed because I spent all my time watching Glee and eating waffles? And why would I throw on my new skirt without checking to make sure it was appropriate for work and not crazy short and annoyingly see-through like I did yesterday? And obviously my plan of lying low didn't work seeing as that it was my co-worker's birthday and everyone had to mingle in the main room.
It happens.
It seems as if there's different people working in this office everyday. And since I've only met some, I cant introduce myself to everyone without accidentally introducing myself to people I already know. So I just insert myself into conversations without any preface. Like at lunch, it's easy to be anti-social since we have our own office apart from the different organization. But I forced myself to eat lunch with some Three Faiths Forum. And by "eat lunch" I mean lean against the cabinet, drink a smoothie and casually tell them facts about the US Postal service and then go back to my desk. Wow, who was that fascinating stranger?

At our magazine staff meeting, we had a woman named Miriam Lorie speak to us. She works at a different interfaith organization which hosts religion-based events and activities. She mentioned they were constructing an 'interfaith garden' for the West End. What do you put in an interfaith garden? Jerusalem tulips?

She told us about another event they host titled Scriptural Reasoning. In which they take a topic, such as charging interest, set out Bibles, Korans, Tanachs and have people discuss the different views from different religions and then apparently everyone learns something and everyone becomes friends. Now, I'm totally for everyone becoming friends but I asked her what exactly the end-goal of this night is, because I'm sure when you have hot-topic issues like homosexuality or Israel, it's not going to be as tame as discussing Halal vs Kosher. I would love to see how this plans out. How do you argue different religions? Or how do you argue when you know there's no "winner"? I've never been very good at debate team, I've always been the time keeper. She said that they save the controversial topics at the end, and that maybe as seeing that WE (the staff) were an interfaith group of people, we'd like to do our own session of Scriptural Reasoning. I guess I forget that we are an interfaith group, and not just journalists. So that should be interesting.

My night plans had included going to a 'haunted pub' with my friend Jackson, which became Jackson, his friend and my roommate. Which was awesome. Except the fact that I got the directions wrong and we finally found the place at 11pm. So we sketichily hung out in Hyde Park so everyone could smoke. Jackson's friend was interesting. She's not in college but she's here for a month doing a internship at parliament. She told me that as long as you have connections, you don't need a diploma to work there. She mentioned that last summer she hit someone's car in a cafe parking lot and went into the cafe to find the owner. He turned out to be lawyer for Virgina's state department or something. And instead of making her pay, he offered her an internship with the firm because he "respected her honesty and could tell she was a good person." Yeah, he doesn't think you're a good person, he thinks you're a hot person. But hey, maybe in Virginia they really do give people jobs based on whether they get a "good person vibe", not so much in NY.

Have a good Wednesday!

Love,
Aviva