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)