Yeah, I get this question a lot.
Sometimes I think about my decision to live in Central London as opposed to Northern London, which is where most of the Jewish students my age live. Upon occasion I’ll grumble about it; there is less access to kosher food, it’s a kind of cramped and annoying living situation, it’s often difficult socially. But it is here in Central London that the most magical things happen, and this constant wackiness mos-def outweighs all the cons.
1. Movie Premiere in Leicester Square: I was hanging out with a friend of mine one night in this particular area, and we just HAPPENED upon the movie premiere of the new strange animated/non animated hybrid, Paul. We scooted our way to the front of the crowd and got a glimpse the blinding flashbulbs, the red carpet, and JASON BATEMAN. You heard me.
2. Shabbat in Central London: This past weekend was my first Shabbat staying in the dorm with Chana. Friday night, a former Macaulay student who now happens to live right around the corner from us, walked with us to Chabad services and dinner near Oxford Street (kind of the equivalent of Fifth Avenue). The Chabad Centre is an entire floor of an office building, and there were around 80 people there for the meal. I had an amazing time playing with the Chabad kids, and the atmosphere was really warm and inviting. The conversation was totally international-I was sandwiched by French and Hebrew speakers-and I met a lot of people from many different walks of life. I found it so mind-boggling that we all knew how to sing “kol haolam kulo”, (albeit in different languages), when we were from the four corners of the earth. Walking home at night was such a radically different experience than walking around on Shabbat in Hendon. Though there is something lovely about a Shabbat aura that settles on an entire neighbourhood, urban Shabbatot offer a special feeling. Walking down the busy street, with cars honking and drunken tourists taking photos of each other, I carried an intimate knowledge of Shabbat’s presence and its quiet Holiness.
I hadn’t been feeling well, so I slept in on Shabbat morning, and lazily made my way to the dorm lounge where I did the morning services and chanted the weekly portion to myself. Chana and I walked over to our friend around the corner, who was joined by another former Macaulay student. We had a lovely lunch of home-baked Challah, sautéed courgettes, tzimmes, and herbed salmon (with hot brownies for dessert!). And, most amazingly, all the museums in England are FREE, so we walked over to the British museum on Shabbat afternoon. There, we thoroughly enjoyed the grand rooms and the amazing artifacts from all over the world that England stole over the years and won’t give back J. So, yeah, I guess you could say I hung out at the Parthenon on Shabbat afternoon. Bits of it, anyway.
3. Chillin’ with Debbie and Conrad: I prefer to offer food or conversation instead of money to people who ask for it on the street, and the other night, a woman with a sleeping bag was asking for money outside of McDonald’s. I was with my friend, Simon, and we stopped to ask her if she wanted something hot to drink, and she said yes. So, we popped into the McDonald’s and ordered a Cappuccino for her. As we were standing there, we both felt the irony in buying a drink from a business that may very well have been a structural cause of this woman’s poverty. We reflected for a minute on all of the different aspects—the workers in the McDonald’s itself, the types of people that were in line buying the food. I started to feel a little sad. Then, we gave her the drink and sat down to chat with her for a bit. Her name was Debbie, and later, her friend Conrad joined us. We talked about London, Americans (she could do a helluva’ good Valley Girl impression), and homeless hostels, life. We laughed a lot and I had really special time connecting with them. And I know it sounds COMPLETELY hallmark-card, but they seriously gave me more than I could ever give them that night. I was floored by how incredible humanity is, and always has been.
You couldn’t wipe that smile off my face for hours afterward.
