Hence, this morning's activities: going on my long-awaited bagel date with Sasha and a few other folks from her house and then going to the Bath Rugby shop to buy what I've been lusting after for quite some time-- an official Bath Rugby jersey (rugby is even bigger than football--soccer--in this city). I've decided that this will be my major touristy purchase for the whole trip (and this is actually useful-- you should see how nice these jerseys are. also, they're built to stand up to lots of rugby matches, so as you can imagine, they're pretty substantial), and the exchange rate was particularly low today. A few of us bought shirts, and are now super excited to wear them to the Rugby match that we will be attending with the programme at the end of the month.
I should probably back up to the last few days though--sorry, I was just so excited about my jersey, I had to share. Tuesday passed fairly uneventfully. I had my tutorial ("From the Modern to the Post-Modern") for the first time, which was exciting-- it looks to be a fun class. The prof. is wonderfully fun (she's the Dean of Academics for the programme), and my partner seems very nice and really interested in discussion. I'm more than a little terrified of the dissertation that I have to produce at the end though; however, I can use it as an opportunity to get moving on my honors thesis on Ulysses!
Wednesday, I had my philosophy class (basically Philosophy of Religion again....oops), which was ok. It's a very small class, so it should be good for discussion, but the prof is a bit strange, and not fantastically engaging. Oh well. The topic is interesting anyway, so it shouldn't be too bad.
The rest of Wednesday was much more interesting. I spent nearly all afternoon making challah (for the first time!) and apple cake. It took FOREVER, but I wound up with an absolutely gorgeous braided and round challah, and three apple cakes, made with apples from the organic garden that I started volunteering for (I know, I know-- I am not outdoorsy, nor do I like to garden. But the people who run the garden are the cutest little old Brits that you've ever seen, and they send you home with tons of free organic produce).
At 6:30, I met up with Gideon and Leah-- the other two Jews in the programme-- and we took the train to nearby Bristol for Rosh Hashanah evening services. Bristol is wildly different from Bath-- very modern, and really large (but I infinitely prefer Bath!). We showed up at this teeny-tiny synagogue, and right away, word spread that we were American students studying in Bath, and people just came flocking over to us to talk with us. Everyone was incredibly nice (though we were teased for our very American pronunciation of "Bath"). The service itself was a bit on the odd side-- it was close to an American Reform service, but with a lot more English, and very little Rosh-Hashanah-specific material, and almost no singing (and the little singing that they did was in melodies that I had never heard). The Rabbi was a tad odd as well. He loved to roll his "r"s (and he said "rrrredemption" and "rrrrepentance" quite a lot), and gave a pretty uninspiring sermon. But I loved that whenever he asked people to rise, he said, "Please be upstanding". I think I'm going to use that in the future.
I also greatly enjoyed hearing people speak Hebrew with a British accent. And I found that during responsive readings, when I was speaking with the rest of the congregation, my accent inadvertantly shifted slowly from full-on American to something slightly more British (I guess so that my voice wouldn't stick out so much), which was kind of cool, and a bit strange at the same time.
After services, we went back to Leah's flat to have a little oneg. We invited her flat and the flats above hers (friends of mine) to come down and join us for wine and the challah and cake that I had made. I gave a two minute intro to Rosh Hashanah, and then we blessed the challah and tore it apart.
It was the greatest challah that I think I've ever eaten.
This could be due to the fact that I was starving, or the fact that I had made it with my own hands, but everyone agreed that it was fantastic. I think I made myself a lot of friends that night. The cake was also surprisingly amazing, and was accordingly devoured along with the challah. It was such a simple holiday meal, but I couldn't have been happier-- it was so nice to be able to share one with new friends when I thought I might be forced to celebrate alone this year.
The next morning, I met up with a member of the synagogue who lives in Bath in the morning, and he drove me to Bristol for services. That service was LONG (and sadly, no better than the one the night before), but I found more Americans-- a small family with the cutest two year-old in the world who had recently moved to Bath, and a student from Michigan who had studied in England during her junior year and then decided to stay. They were all very nice, and I hope to meet up with the student again. I also met another family who lives in Bath, who invited me to come to their house for Sukkot, and I got to join in the big potluck lunch that the congregation had after services, where everyone came up to talk to me-- again, unbelievably friendly. I don't know where people get the idea that the British are super reserved and unfriendly-- I'll tell you now, it's a myth.
I had my last class of the week that afternoon (from 4 to 6...bleh), Patterns of Power. It actually looks to be a really interesting class, all about the interplay between inequality and power and policy, and the tutor is really nice. I met up with people after class to get Indian takeaway (from, supposedly, the best Indian place in Bath), which I took home to eat tonight (because I don't have any food to eat in the house). I spent a short while reading when I got back to the house, but then Clay and I wound up watching "Aladin," which was rather wonderful. I'll be finished with Pride and Prejudice today anyway-- it didn't put me very far behind.
So the rest of today shall be spent doing laundry, hopefully tossing a frisbee in the park briefly, and doing homework. This weekend, I'm heading off to London to visit my aunt and uncle-- more on that when I return!
A belated Shanah Tovah to everyone! Love and miss you all.
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