Warm Beer and Other Things

My Semester in London

Month: October 2014

Top Hats and Anglo Jewery

October 19, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Shul

The Lauderdale Road Synagogue

This past weekend was the last of the Jewish holidays that I will celebrate while in London (at least until Chanukah). While these holidays are important in their own right, a big part of these celebrations is being with family and enjoying tradition. Being away from home, Jewish families from different communities invited me to celebrate with them. While it was difficult being away from home, it was interesting to see the unique jewish communities of London.

I had the opportunity to be with a traditional orthodox family and their community in Golders Green, as well as a Masorti family in Finchley (a denomination we don’t officially have in America). But by far the most interesting experience was my time spent with a Rabbi and his family who moved from NY to become the Chief Rabbi of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogues in London. While the words of the services might be the same, their traditions were totally foreign.

The men of the congregation wore  top hats. They used to wear Tricorn hats, until they became out of style, which oddly enough has not stopped the use of top hats. The services themselves were also different, using a choir, which is no longer a traditional part of most American Sephardic communities. They used different tunes, that resemble church hymns and ate a combination of undefined, Middle Eastern and English cuisine.

To more cultural immersion!

Cheers

Noticing Some Differences

October 6, 2014 / / 0 Comments

English culture is so diverse , it’s sometimes difficult to notice what IS english culture, especially after coming from such a multifaceted city as NY. But after being here for almost three weeks I have started to realize more nuanced differences than the fact that there are no stop signs in London. For instance, their complete disregard for the American right to bear arms. They just don’t understand why anyone would need a gun.

I also have become aware of how different our newspapers are. I’ve been told that the ‘main’ newspapers here are The Guardian and The Times. Comparing these two to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, makes English news papers look like tabloids. They just don’t seem as serious. There are articles about the royal family with titles like “David Cameron may have said something he shouldn’t have about the Queen.. AGAIN.” While, they do have things that seem more serious, the royal family is a big part of the culture here and insulting the Queen is a rather big offense for them.

Some other differences are in relation to their  views towards smoking and alcohol. Both are so entrenched in their culture, its weird coming from a place where if you smoked in a park, people would instantly heckle you with a barrage of loud obnoxious coughs.

Another interesting difference is how aware they are of the world. From my experience, America citizens are overwhelming unaware of countries past western Europe, let alone their current events. The other day, I had a sixth year (sixth grader) tell me where the island of Comoros is (never even heard of it). Because, England is physically connected to  the rest of the world, its citizens seem to be more educated and concerned with the rest of the world.

Also they use the words naughty… a lot. It’s really amusing.

Finally, My First Week of School

October 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

It seems like I’ve been in London for a month, but I finally had my first week of school. I have class Monday through Wednesdays which is pretty great. Monday I have Diplomacy Old and New. Tuesday I have Education and Religion and Wednesday I have Politics and Government and Theatre in London.

University works a bit different in London. First of all, most classes have seminars attached to lectures. So if there is a big lecture for 2 hrs it then splits up into smaller classes for the last hour. (Back home we only do this for science classes). Also here professors are called tutors and classes are called modules or tutorials. The way the education system approaches specialization is also different. In America, everyone needs to have core requirements, where they take a variety of classes in different disciplines. Here, students start specializing during sixth form, or their last years of high school. Once they enter college students have one ‘major’ and study that throughout their three years.

The work here is also a lot more independent. For my classes I have one essay due for the entire semester (The most I have is 2 assignments in one class). I am in class with British students and most of their classes are a year long as opposed to a semester. Reading lists and textbooks are not assigned, rather there is one long suggested reading list, and students are told to pick and choose. Additionally, professors or tutors, don’t mark students’ assignments. Students submit their assignments online to have them evaluated by different people (Until this year students had to hand in their paper in person at a center in the school). Hopefully this new system wont make me procrastinate too much.

Cheers!

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