Digest #4: The last couple of days in a nutshell, or: At least Esteban enjoys laughing at me.

I probably haven't mentioned that Katie, Kathryn, Rebecca and I live near a palace. It has burned down twice and was recently rebuilt in the 1980's. This of course isn't terribly important, but I did take some photographs the other night as we wandered about to find Rebecca's bus stop for her journey to the primary school that she teaches at. It's at the top of a hill so it was pretty windy when we got up there. Windy and cold. The weather here has been relatively mild for January meaning no snow, but rain and wind. It was incredibly windy today. Normally this wouldn't be very interesting, but when it's windy enough to cause delays for the tube (most of which is entirely underground), cause flights to be cancelled, and to shake the house enough that it sounds like someone's breaking into it, then you know that it's really windy. The journey in the tube for Kathryn and myself from Euston Station was crazy. I've only ever once before been on the tube when it has been full of people and that was the height of rush hour (a tale for later on in this entry) , but today on both the Victoria and Piccadilly lines (and the platforms in both Euston and Finsbury Park) there were so many people that I was thankful that I wasn't even mildly claustrophobic. It was absolutely insane. Christ, so insane. Anyway, as I said, it isn't terribly important. But this evening after returning home, I spent some time with my host brother Esteban. I was watching him with Kathryn for a bit after Gustavo went to work and before Marlene came home. He takes pleasure in how bad I am at football (then again, we were inside playing with a small plastic football), like rolling on the floor and flinging himself onto the couch laughing at me. He's a funny little boy though, I think he's pretty fantastic though. I generally greet him with an over exaggerated, "es-TAY-BAAAHHHN!" Mostly because is name is so great to say and because he's a cool little kid. We talk about movies and he likes the band, America (no lie). I like my host family a whole lot, I consider myself very lucky..

Anyway, now for something completely different, I had my first couple of days at the Jewish Museum this week. I'm mostly databasing the books that they own right now at both the Finchley and Camden Town museums. The Finchley site is quite small (very small actually, I was initially taken aback), but good for small school groups that apparently come with some sort of frequency. But it has an interesting exhibit about a British citizen who was a survivor of Auschwitz (he is actually still alive). The Camden Town site is much larger and is currently having an exhibit about Janusz Korczak. They have an amazing collection of Judaica on the second floor of the museum, including a huge 17th century Italian-made Ark, that somehow found its way to London. How they got it into the museum is beyond me as it is nearly 11 feet tall by about 7 or 8 feet wide. Both sites are great and I enjoy working there even if the work part has been a bit dull. I did get to sit in though on a talk given to a group of 16-year-old school girls by an Auschwitz survivor (a different one than previously mentioned). Though, I must admit I wanted to throw things at some of the girls as they were being ridiculously disrespectful. Regardless of the subject material, it's still inappropriate to text one another and giggle. I was definitely irritated. But as I said, I enjoy the museum a lot. And should anyone think about visiting England in the future, I would suggest visiting the museum.

I can't think of anything else to say in all honesty. Though, I suppose I can't really get away with writing these posts without mentioning the following subject (so I may as well get it over with): English men. Let me tell you, I hope that since David Beckham is relocating to America to play football for LA Galaxy, that American men will take notice of David Beckham's European style. I must admit that the men here, based on exceedingly shallow standards, have thus far been fantastic. I think it is mostly because I think that they are very conscious about their appearance and generally tend to be quite well dressed, which is a nice bit of pace from Earlham I must admit. Molly (Kistin) and I discussed the pros of having "Foreign Advantage" while we're studying abroad, though I am terribly embarrassed of my accent (I sound like a hick, it's awful) so I won't be taking advantage of, well, my "Foreign Advantage". But needless to say, the men here are quite nice to look at, but so far that's about it. So family, you needn't worry, the chances of me falling for someone and relocating are slim to none for various reasons.

Until next time,

jenny