Christmas in London is Cool

Hey gang. So sorry, I have been so remiss in blogging lately. To be honest, I don't really have much to blog about. Things seem quite less exciting on here when I don't do tourist-y things. London was not terribly tourist-y. I spent most of my time hanging out with Paul and sometimes even doing homework, because I am super cool. 

However, I do have a few fun stories to tell you about. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both very fun. I spent Christmas Eve with Paul and his family at a family friend's new apartment. This family friend is an Iranian girl, who had immigrated to London for various reasons and since converted to Judaism. So we had a lovely dinner at her apartment and then had a council of people browsing JDate for this girl, Lilli. This council was headed up by Paul's mother, who had a lot of fun on this website. Afterwards, Paul's mom, Paul's house-keeper and I went to midnight mass. So a Jew, a Muslim, and a former Catholic Atheist all go to midnight mass seems like the start of a really good (or really offensive) joke... 

Christmas Day we went over to Paul's grandparents for a Christmas lunch of turkey, and then there was the whole debacle as to whether we should recook the turkey, and I was told "this is what you get when you try and celebrate Christmas with a bunch of Jews." Lolerskates. The dinner was very nice, and then we played a game called Articulate, which is pretty much Taboo. That was also some kind of debacle, but nothing like the turkey. Then Paul and I watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special, which was so great and so many emotions and I am going to stop now before I get embarrassing (too late?). 

The next day I went into Central London by myself (score for navigating Hampstead and the London Underground) to meet Robert for lunch. He had been in Paris all semester, but because of being crazy and things, I hadn't gotten a chance to see him. So it was great to catch up. However, this also meant that we were stuck in the middle of Boxing Day madness (and madness it was). There were queues that went around entire stores and everything. (Brits love them some queueing.) So there was that. Then on Friday, I had Shabbat dinner with Paul and his family (baby's first Shabbat), which was fun and interesting. 

That's pretty much it as far as my end. I am back in Tübingen now and trying to balance studying with preparing for New Years Eve (here called Silvester). It's working...sort of. It's especially hard when the Packers are playing the Bears. :) But hey, PACKERS WON THE NFC NORTH! Woooooo!