The first day of Shavuot just finished. The past thirty or so hours have been pretty excellent.
Shavuot, like most Jewish holidays, started with an evening prayer service at the synagogue, the Oxford Jewish Centre on Richmond Street. The service started at 7:30 (I got there a bit late). When the service got out, I stood outside the sanctuary and talked to the few people I knew. There were three or four people I had met at the Passover at the beginning of the term and Zohar Atkins, Ari's brother and a Bronfman alum.
While I was talking to Zohar, I see a girl in the corner of my eye, and I hear, "Benamy? Yashar?" I turned around and didn't believe who I saw. "It's Leah!" she said. And I just said, "Yeah! Oh my God!" [or something to that effect]. It was Leah Breslow, my counsellor, or madricha, from my summer in Bronfman! Except for the Bronfman fall retreat, my senior year of high school, I hadn't seen her since the program ended. She had come to the Jerusalem Bayit once, but I think I must have been out of town because neither of us remember seeing each other. Long story short: she's traveling around Europe, contacted Zohar, and was staying with him at Oxford for Shavuot.
We spent the rest of the kiddush and dinner catching up. Obviously, since it has been several years, there was too much to tell. She's had a fascinating few years since Bronfman, and it was great to hear some of her stories. The main story is that she's been bouncing from place to place for a while and has yet to find her place. Before my Bronfman year (but after hers), she studied in a seminary in Israel, as girls from her community tend to do. Afterwards she stayed in Israel, working at the Third Temple Institute and studying at Bar-Ilan. She went from there back home to Toronto. She studied some more and then moved in with some friends to a place in the city. She was having a wonderful year. Some stuff happened with an boyfriend-now-ex-boyfriend and Africa, she got some tickets to Europe, and she's been traveling half-aimlessly for the last nine weeks. Then she thought Oxford would be a cool place to be for Shabbat. I'm leaving out a lot of details, but, main point, it's really amazing how these things happen.
It's tradition, for Shavuot, to study Jewish stuff all night. I had just completed my tutorial and History of London presentation, so I don't have anything due for a week, and I didn't have an excuse not to stay up all night studying. The night progressed with some lectures. The first lecture had to do with the meaning of Mt. Sinai being mentioned alongside the description of shmita laws in Leviticus. The guy was a horrible public speaker, so I got some of the main points but didn't understand it all.
The second lecture was much better. The lecturer was an Israeli rabbi, and his talk was titled "Wings to Fly With - Megilat Ruth as a flying manual." This was definitely my favorite lecture of the night. He basically tied together a bunch of descriptions of humans, angels, heaven, and Abraham to describe how kind, loving deeds can, in some spiritual sense, allow us to fly higher than angels. He brought in a lot of beautiful visual imagery of how we are limited physically from doing all the kind things we would like to do. There was a Kabbalistic description of how the gemilut chasadim build up inside us, flowing out of our fingertips, but sometimes can't flow out fast enough. He said that we should be discouraged when we cannot accomplish all the good that we wish, but we should let it keep building up inside us. The spiritual buildup inside has the power, he sort of says, to lift us up so that we can "fly." There were parts that were a bit, maybe cheesy is the right word, for a scientist to listen to, but it was still beautiful.
The third lecture was just all right. This guy, a lecturer of Jewish Studies or something in Oxford, tried to connect the adventurous tales of Rabbi bar bar Hana to Harry Potter, but he seemed incapable of staying on the topic for more than two minutes before wandering off on many tangents that I guess he found interesting. It was more entertaining than the first guy, but I wasn't really sure what the point was. I think his end message I got was something along the lines of, "Some stories are ridiculous to the point where they are pure fantasy. Nevertheless, there is value in enjoying them, and very important, beautiful lessons can be drawn out of them from interpretations as creative as the stories." He made a half-hearted attempt to draw us in with some mentions of Harry Potter, but I didn't really get that either. I liked it, but I didn't think I got anything new out of that message.
After three lectures, it was well past midnight, and I was pretty much done with lectures. There were some more discussion-y things, but I spent the rest of the night talking and listening to people. Mainly, I talked with Leah, Zohar, an older man who had studied Materials Science at Cambridge, and a girl named Jackie (I think) (Another ridiculous coincidence - this girl grew up in southern California, was really involved in JSA through high school, and knew Kai Lukoff and other Petaluma people through it!). We talked about all sorts of things. My memory is a bit hazy - it got really late, and I had only slept maybe 5 hours the night before. I know we talked about making life decisions, mass violence, differences between the UK and the USA, and a bunch of other good stuff. Some of it involved Judaism; some of it didn't (directly). In any case, the night went on.
I got second and third winds, thanks to some Ben & Jerry's at 2 or 3 am, a couple cups of Coke, and a bottle of Sainsbury's whiskey. That didn't keep me from feeling totally exhausted during the Shacharit and Musaf services, which started around 4 or 4:30 am and went until after 6 am. I barely made it onto the bimah to do the glillah for the first Torah. Somehow I did, I ate a bagel with some cream cheese and lox (I'm starting to actually like lox. I wonder if this means that I'm starting to become a real Jew... I'm not sure what that would mean either...), and then walked home. I was asleep by 7:30 am. I haven't been this ahead on school-work in ages, nor have I been up this late/early in ages. Ironic how that works out.
Oh. And CHAG SAMEACH!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Walk Around Oxfordshire
Around a month ago, Heidi Thorsen, if I remember right, found a book in the study room called TimeOut: Country Walks: 52 Walks Within Easy Reach of London. It's an awesome book full of day hikes, one for each week of the year. We said we were going to start doing them, but we didn't.
Sunday morning a couple weeks ago, I rounded up everyone I could, who amounted to Christine and Kendra, both reluctant, and got them to go on one of the walks with me.
The walk went out west past the train station to the River Isis. We walked alongside the river for a while, crossing bridges and getting passed by crew boats. The trail led us out into the countryside, and we eventually came out next to Port Meadow, a giant open meadow a couple miles long with grazing cows and rivers on both sides of it.
We took a detour to the west to check out the little town of Binsey. We walked through an inn and onto a street next to thatched-roof houses and pastures with lots of grazing sheep. After walking for a while, we didn't get to the town, so we turned around and walked back, mostly unsuccessful. We got back to the trail next to Port Meadow and kept going until we got to the Trout Inn, where we stopped for lunch.
The Trout Inn was a super-cute, very popular little place. It is an old country inn that has been converted into a restaurant. The inside is all wooden, with low ceilings and lots of leather chairs. There's also a nice bar. The inside was full at first, so we got seated outside. The outside patio seating is next to a little offshoot of one of the rivers with a small waterwheel and waterfall. There is a bridge to the other bank of the river, where they keep a garden and a bunch of peacocks.
First the wind came, and then the rain began. We were under an umbrella, but it didn't do much with the wind, so we took shelter inside. The place looked full, but we eventually crowded around a small table meant for two.
Eventually the food came and was really delicious. We each ordered a different kind of pizza; mine was some sort of cheese and mushrooms. I got some pear cider to go with it. Brilliant.
After a long lunch, Christine and Kendra called a taxi to pick them up, since they both had a lot of work they had to get done and it was already 2pm or so. So I did the other half of the loop myself.
The walk led me through a little more of the town of Wolvercote and into Port Meadows.
I walked through the meadows for a while.
Eventually I reached the other side of the meadows and continued along the River Cherwell.
There is a long section of the river with tons of these houseboats just tied up on the bank. This is one of the less interesting ones, actually. I should have taken pictures of some of the more interestingly-decorated ones. Some of them weren't too well kept, though.
The river led me back to Oxford. I walked through some neighborhoods with old houses until I got to Wolfson College and the University Parks. The building pictured above is somewhere near the Pitt-Rivers Museum or Keble College. I'm not sure exactly what it was.
Sunday morning a couple weeks ago, I rounded up everyone I could, who amounted to Christine and Kendra, both reluctant, and got them to go on one of the walks with me.
The walk went out west past the train station to the River Isis. We walked alongside the river for a while, crossing bridges and getting passed by crew boats. The trail led us out into the countryside, and we eventually came out next to Port Meadow, a giant open meadow a couple miles long with grazing cows and rivers on both sides of it.
We took a detour to the west to check out the little town of Binsey. We walked through an inn and onto a street next to thatched-roof houses and pastures with lots of grazing sheep. After walking for a while, we didn't get to the town, so we turned around and walked back, mostly unsuccessful. We got back to the trail next to Port Meadow and kept going until we got to the Trout Inn, where we stopped for lunch.
The Trout Inn was a super-cute, very popular little place. It is an old country inn that has been converted into a restaurant. The inside is all wooden, with low ceilings and lots of leather chairs. There's also a nice bar. The inside was full at first, so we got seated outside. The outside patio seating is next to a little offshoot of one of the rivers with a small waterwheel and waterfall. There is a bridge to the other bank of the river, where they keep a garden and a bunch of peacocks.
First the wind came, and then the rain began. We were under an umbrella, but it didn't do much with the wind, so we took shelter inside. The place looked full, but we eventually crowded around a small table meant for two.
Eventually the food came and was really delicious. We each ordered a different kind of pizza; mine was some sort of cheese and mushrooms. I got some pear cider to go with it. Brilliant.
After a long lunch, Christine and Kendra called a taxi to pick them up, since they both had a lot of work they had to get done and it was already 2pm or so. So I did the other half of the loop myself.
The walk led me through a little more of the town of Wolvercote and into Port Meadows.
I walked through the meadows for a while.
Eventually I reached the other side of the meadows and continued along the River Cherwell.
There is a long section of the river with tons of these houseboats just tied up on the bank. This is one of the less interesting ones, actually. I should have taken pictures of some of the more interestingly-decorated ones. Some of them weren't too well kept, though.
The river led me back to Oxford. I walked through some neighborhoods with old houses until I got to Wolfson College and the University Parks. The building pictured above is somewhere near the Pitt-Rivers Museum or Keble College. I'm not sure exactly what it was.
4th History & Architecture of Oxford Tour
This time we took a look at the Age of Classicism in Oxford, visiting Christopher Wren's Sheldonian Theater, Queen's College, and the Bodleian Library.
This is the inside of the the Sheldonian Theater. It's the main ceremonial hall for the University of Oxford. The design is loosely based on a Roman amphitheater or coliseum. Note the Roman columns.
A Roman theater would not have a roof. Since some buildings needed a roof, the style was to put something on the ceiling that looked like the sky. Think about the Sistine Chapel. Here is a sort of Christianized scene of the heavens, but it doesn't look so different from the way Romans depicted the gods chilling up on Olympus.
The background of this blog is the best shot I got from the top of the theater. Here's another view, where you can see the Bridge of Sighs.
The front of the Sheldonian Theater. It's basically a version of a Roman temple. Circular arches, Corinthian columns, pilasters and moulding, triangular pediments, perfect symmetry.
This is the front of the Bodleian Library. You can see the side of the Sheldonian Theater on the right, with the turquoise dome. Again, it looks like a Roman temple. Big Doric columns supporting a triangular pediment, statues on the top. The theater looks more fancy and refined because of the use of the Corinthian order. This uses the Doric, which makes it look strong, powerful, and important.
This is the inside of the the Sheldonian Theater. It's the main ceremonial hall for the University of Oxford. The design is loosely based on a Roman amphitheater or coliseum. Note the Roman columns.
A Roman theater would not have a roof. Since some buildings needed a roof, the style was to put something on the ceiling that looked like the sky. Think about the Sistine Chapel. Here is a sort of Christianized scene of the heavens, but it doesn't look so different from the way Romans depicted the gods chilling up on Olympus.
The background of this blog is the best shot I got from the top of the theater. Here's another view, where you can see the Bridge of Sighs.
The front of the Sheldonian Theater. It's basically a version of a Roman temple. Circular arches, Corinthian columns, pilasters and moulding, triangular pediments, perfect symmetry.
This is the front of the Bodleian Library. You can see the side of the Sheldonian Theater on the right, with the turquoise dome. Again, it looks like a Roman temple. Big Doric columns supporting a triangular pediment, statues on the top. The theater looks more fancy and refined because of the use of the Corinthian order. This uses the Doric, which makes it look strong, powerful, and important.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
3rd Trip to London
This past Friday, we went on our third and final History of London class field trip. The tour focused on the western parts of London.
We went from the church to the area round Brick Lane, an immigrants neighborhood. It was full of Eastern European Jews for several decades after the 1880s. The Jews have mostly moved away to nicer places and have been replaced with a large Bangladeshi community. This is Nina posing with some graffiti on a side street.
This is the area near some old docks. There are cool bridges connecting buildings.
Tower Bridge!
Tower Bridge and me!
A modern cityscape across the Thames.
Houses of Parliament!
Big Ben!
Westminster Hall, inside the Houses of Parliament. After the field trip ended, a bunch of us went on a tour of the Houses of Parliament, but we weren't allowed to take photos anywhere except in the Hall. The hall was most recently used for Obama's address to the Queen, Parliament, and Britain. He is one of very few people to give their speeches in this hall. Usually heads of state speak in a smaller, adjoining room. Our tour guide, this excitable older guy, couldn't stop talking about how he shook Obama's hand. He was very impressed with Obama, and called shaking his hand one of the best things to have happen to him (or something like that).
Friday, June 3, 2011
Remember that last post...
So. Funny story.
After I typed that last post, got in bed and fell asleep soon after, around 6 am. Next thing I know, I wake up naturally. I check my watch. 9:00 it says. And my train for London leaves at 9:01. I burst into a few expletives, wonder frustratingly why I am such a stupid dolt, ask Victor what I was thinking, stuff my face in my comforter, and then scream for a couple seconds in really tired, exhausted exasperation.
And here's the funny part. Victor tells me that he remembers my alarm going off at 8:00, me getting out of bed, me going over to my computer, me turning off the alarm, and then me going back to sleep. What was I thinking? Why would I do that? I had no memory of this, which is very bizarre to me. Now I'm not sure if I remember it or not. I can certainly imagine how this would have happened, so I can see the scene play in my head. But I'm not sure if that's memory or not. Very weird. Anyway...
Everything turned out fine. I threw clothes on, power-walked to the train station. I should have gotten there right in time, but-
I arrived at the train station, got through the ticket machines, and my watch said 9:29. As I run up to board the plane, the worker closes and locks the door to the train. Apparently my watch is 1 minute slow, and they lock the doors 30 seconds before the train leaves. So I just stand there in disbelief for 30 seconds while the train sits there mocking me. As it leaves, I turn around and start kicking a concrete pillar, because that's about the most productive thing I can do at this point. And, did I mention?, I'm really tired.
Eventually I ask one of the workers there the best way to get to London. I get on the 9:43 to Reading. On the train, I ask the guy in the seat behind me what to do next. He tells me to transfer to at Reading to the Paddington bound train. We end up sitting together on the next train and chatting. Turns out he's a student at Keble College in Oxford. He's studying theology and philosophy. He also missed his train to a doctor's appointment in London, so I felt a bit better about myself. He got the appointment, for eye surgery I think, pushed back an hour. I didn't get his name, but he was really nice. Maybe I'll see him around Oxford.
So I catch my trains. I only made two stops - Reading and Paddington, so I think I got to Paddington at about the same time as the Oxford-Paddington train would have anyway. I get on the Underground at Paddington, find my way to the group (this whole time I've been texting back and forth with Agnes, Aileen, Alexis, Elizabeth, and Lynnette to figure out where I should meet them), and, apparently, I barely missed anything. I got to our first real destination, a Hawksmoor church on Brushfield almost right after the group did. I even walked in to the church with them.
So - more or less - happy ending. The rest of the day was really good too. Save that story for later, though.
Now. The same drill with Bath tomorrow morning. Time to go to sleep.
After I typed that last post, got in bed and fell asleep soon after, around 6 am. Next thing I know, I wake up naturally. I check my watch. 9:00 it says. And my train for London leaves at 9:01. I burst into a few expletives, wonder frustratingly why I am such a stupid dolt, ask Victor what I was thinking, stuff my face in my comforter, and then scream for a couple seconds in really tired, exhausted exasperation.
And here's the funny part. Victor tells me that he remembers my alarm going off at 8:00, me getting out of bed, me going over to my computer, me turning off the alarm, and then me going back to sleep. What was I thinking? Why would I do that? I had no memory of this, which is very bizarre to me. Now I'm not sure if I remember it or not. I can certainly imagine how this would have happened, so I can see the scene play in my head. But I'm not sure if that's memory or not. Very weird. Anyway...
Everything turned out fine. I threw clothes on, power-walked to the train station. I should have gotten there right in time, but-
I arrived at the train station, got through the ticket machines, and my watch said 9:29. As I run up to board the plane, the worker closes and locks the door to the train. Apparently my watch is 1 minute slow, and they lock the doors 30 seconds before the train leaves. So I just stand there in disbelief for 30 seconds while the train sits there mocking me. As it leaves, I turn around and start kicking a concrete pillar, because that's about the most productive thing I can do at this point. And, did I mention?, I'm really tired.
Eventually I ask one of the workers there the best way to get to London. I get on the 9:43 to Reading. On the train, I ask the guy in the seat behind me what to do next. He tells me to transfer to at Reading to the Paddington bound train. We end up sitting together on the next train and chatting. Turns out he's a student at Keble College in Oxford. He's studying theology and philosophy. He also missed his train to a doctor's appointment in London, so I felt a bit better about myself. He got the appointment, for eye surgery I think, pushed back an hour. I didn't get his name, but he was really nice. Maybe I'll see him around Oxford.
So I catch my trains. I only made two stops - Reading and Paddington, so I think I got to Paddington at about the same time as the Oxford-Paddington train would have anyway. I get on the Underground at Paddington, find my way to the group (this whole time I've been texting back and forth with Agnes, Aileen, Alexis, Elizabeth, and Lynnette to figure out where I should meet them), and, apparently, I barely missed anything. I got to our first real destination, a Hawksmoor church on Brushfield almost right after the group did. I even walked in to the church with them.
So - more or less - happy ending. The rest of the day was really good too. Save that story for later, though.
Now. The same drill with Bath tomorrow morning. Time to go to sleep.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Wide Awake at 5:30 am
I put myself in my bed hours ago, but I'm even more awake now than I was then. The sun hasn't quite risen yet, but it started getting light about an hour ago. It's so bright outside that the sun might as well be out. The sky is a light gray, and all along the eastern horizon is a yellow glow.
I'm not sure why I'm so awake, but I can easily think of three good reasons. First, I am not physically tired. I haven't done anything appreciably athletic in a couple weeks other than walk some. Second, studying has kept me up this late a few times in the last couple weeks. For a string of days, 5 am was my average bedtime. I thought I was past that though. Third, my head has been reeling with all sorts of thoughts. Many of them are things I need to put in the blog. I don't want to do it now, but I figured I would post now the topics of the posts I need to write eventually. This way, if I forget to write about them, you can remind me later. Particularly if you you find something interesting (whoever is reading this).
Questions university students, at Stanford or not, should be asking themselves
Great conversations
The makings of a the best days
Reflections on recent discussions with Kendra, Nina, Lynnette, Kelly, Hanz, Heming, Laura, Aileen, and Li (definitely not getting to all of that)
Summary and reflections on late night discussion with Victor
Remembering my really long talk/debate with Ben in the fall
Possibilities for life after Stanford
Writing a book with Aaron Anderson/Where did Aaron Anderson go?
Oligarchical blogging
Getting old
Marriage and kids
Remembering Bronfman, the best and the worst of
Developing self-control
My opinions of Oxford students
My 11-step method to winning at Life
The correctness of my 11-step method to winning at Life
PS - It's close to 6 am now, and I'm getting up to go to London at 8. Fun times.
I'm not sure why I'm so awake, but I can easily think of three good reasons. First, I am not physically tired. I haven't done anything appreciably athletic in a couple weeks other than walk some. Second, studying has kept me up this late a few times in the last couple weeks. For a string of days, 5 am was my average bedtime. I thought I was past that though. Third, my head has been reeling with all sorts of thoughts. Many of them are things I need to put in the blog. I don't want to do it now, but I figured I would post now the topics of the posts I need to write eventually. This way, if I forget to write about them, you can remind me later. Particularly if you you find something interesting (whoever is reading this).
Questions university students, at Stanford or not, should be asking themselves
Great conversations
The makings of a the best days
Reflections on recent discussions with Kendra, Nina, Lynnette, Kelly, Hanz, Heming, Laura, Aileen, and Li (definitely not getting to all of that)
Summary and reflections on late night discussion with Victor
Remembering my really long talk/debate with Ben in the fall
Possibilities for life after Stanford
Writing a book with Aaron Anderson/Where did Aaron Anderson go?
Oligarchical blogging
Getting old
Marriage and kids
Remembering Bronfman, the best and the worst of
Developing self-control
My opinions of Oxford students
My 11-step method to winning at Life
The correctness of my 11-step method to winning at Life
PS - It's close to 6 am now, and I'm getting up to go to London at 8. Fun times.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Radcliffe Science Library Paper
I spent all of yesterday and today until 2pm researching and writing on the Radcliffe Science Library. When I've figured out how to transfer the paper to Blogger, I'll post it (not that I think anyone is reading these).
I wrote the paper on the History and Architecture of the Radcliffe Science Library. The assignment was to pick a building, any building in Oxford, research it, and write about it. I chose this one because it looked cool, I go to it a lot, and it's not one of the really well-known buildings in Oxford. As it turns out, it's even less known than I thought. There was hardly any information available on its construction and my friend Hanz, who's a real Oxford student, didn't even know where it was. (But that makes some sense, because he studies English). So my 3+ page report on the building is, to my knowledge, now the most impressive account of this building in existence. There was a really nice librarian who helped me find sources for my research. I think I'll write him a thank-you card and print out a copy of my paper for him. He might actually find it useful. As far as I can tell, nobody has ever bothered to publish this much on this building before.
I wrote the paper on the History and Architecture of the Radcliffe Science Library. The assignment was to pick a building, any building in Oxford, research it, and write about it. I chose this one because it looked cool, I go to it a lot, and it's not one of the really well-known buildings in Oxford. As it turns out, it's even less known than I thought. There was hardly any information available on its construction and my friend Hanz, who's a real Oxford student, didn't even know where it was. (But that makes some sense, because he studies English). So my 3+ page report on the building is, to my knowledge, now the most impressive account of this building in existence. There was a really nice librarian who helped me find sources for my research. I think I'll write him a thank-you card and print out a copy of my paper for him. He might actually find it useful. As far as I can tell, nobody has ever bothered to publish this much on this building before.
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