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.
you still haven't gone to trafalgar square!
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