What I have been up to
Jan. 22nd, 2007 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lavendersparkleI've been up to lots of things since I last posted so I'll bore you all with a nice long post.
On Tuesday I had a final pre-conversion meeting with my sponsoring rabbi. The good news was that I told her that I was dating a non-Jew and she didn't think that it would be a problem. She said that I would be fine but that I should make sure I make an effort to show the Beth Din what I know because I have a bit of a habit of not saying things because I think their obvious.
On Wednesday I went to the revision class for my J prep class. It was really just a chance to meet up again and for one of the rabbis to reassure us that everything would be fine. We chatted to a woman who was in the class above us and has been to the beth din already and talked about some of the questions they might ask. It was quite fun and made me feel very enthusiastic. (This was followed by the train journey from hell.)
On Thursday Alec and I went to our first ballroom dancing lesson. It was quite good fun. We did cha cha cha, jive and waltz. There were far more women than men there and the instructor suggested women should swap partners every so often so that more women got a chance to dance with a man but I, and most of the other women who had come with a man, didn't. I brought my own man; I don't see why I should have to share him. I also don't feel very comfortable dancing with a man I'm not in a relationship or at least very good friends with. A lot of the men who hadn't been brought by women looked like the fitted the 'women join CDC because they like dancing; male natscis/mathmos/compscis join because their only opportunity to touch women' cliché. Last night Alec told me that Rich and a lady friend of his might come along and that Toby might come along in the hope of meeting ladies. I want to find out whether it's OK to go to classes on different days of the week as Alec and I often have things on at the weekends.
On Friday I went to Chabad for shabbat dinner. It was lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Rochel seems to have developed a bump since I last saw her which added to the joyful feeling of the evening.
On Saturday I went to shul and then I and most of a little gang of progressive students went back to Liana’s room and chatted until shabbat went out and we improvised havdallah with tea and night lights. At shul Robbie asked me what I had planned to celebrate my conversion at shul to which I replied that I hadn't really thought it through. After the service he took me to chat to Shoshanna whom we thought was the chief warden but post has now passed on to someone else. She seemed quite enthusiastic about doing something in at the shul to make my conversion and told me to talk to the current chief warden. Rebecca than told me that the student service was the second shabbat after my conversion so it seems like a good idea to take it over a little bit to include a celebration of my conversion. I also asked Liana to witness my immersion and she said that she would more than happy to do it.
On Saturday night I went to see The Last King of Scotland with Alec as he really wanted to go and see it*. It was horrible and I burst into tears as we left the cinema**.
On Sunday I went all the way to Sutton to meet the other members of my A-level further maths class for lunch. As the bus I was on approached I realised that I hadn't been to the area in over three years. It was like turning a corner and finding oneself in the landscape of one's dreams. If anyone had asked me to draw a map of the area I would have been completely unable to and yet as the bus went along the main road I almost instinctively knew that down that road was the house where one of my friends had lived or what the next thing the bus would pass would be. Everything was also saturated with memories, the newspaper stand I used to buy Diva magazine from, a restaurant where a photo I still have was taken at someone's birthday. It felt like if I wasn't careful I would fall down a rabbit hole and the last four and a half years of my life would only have been a dream.
Lunch was nice and we stayed in Pizza Express for ages talking about what we'd been up to and reminiscing about things that happened at school***. Two of the girls there had bumped into people who had done economics with me at Queens'. People with good mathematical degrees are a very small world.
*He has a slight obsession with Idi Amin due to the John Bird radio monologues.
**I didn't see anyone else in the cinema crying so I'm probably a bit more sensitive than most people.
***This included quite a lot of 'crazy thing Emily did' stories.
On Tuesday I had a final pre-conversion meeting with my sponsoring rabbi. The good news was that I told her that I was dating a non-Jew and she didn't think that it would be a problem. She said that I would be fine but that I should make sure I make an effort to show the Beth Din what I know because I have a bit of a habit of not saying things because I think their obvious.
On Wednesday I went to the revision class for my J prep class. It was really just a chance to meet up again and for one of the rabbis to reassure us that everything would be fine. We chatted to a woman who was in the class above us and has been to the beth din already and talked about some of the questions they might ask. It was quite fun and made me feel very enthusiastic. (This was followed by the train journey from hell.)
On Thursday Alec and I went to our first ballroom dancing lesson. It was quite good fun. We did cha cha cha, jive and waltz. There were far more women than men there and the instructor suggested women should swap partners every so often so that more women got a chance to dance with a man but I, and most of the other women who had come with a man, didn't. I brought my own man; I don't see why I should have to share him. I also don't feel very comfortable dancing with a man I'm not in a relationship or at least very good friends with. A lot of the men who hadn't been brought by women looked like the fitted the 'women join CDC because they like dancing; male natscis/mathmos/compscis join because their only opportunity to touch women' cliché. Last night Alec told me that Rich and a lady friend of his might come along and that Toby might come along in the hope of meeting ladies. I want to find out whether it's OK to go to classes on different days of the week as Alec and I often have things on at the weekends.
On Friday I went to Chabad for shabbat dinner. It was lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Rochel seems to have developed a bump since I last saw her which added to the joyful feeling of the evening.
On Saturday I went to shul and then I and most of a little gang of progressive students went back to Liana’s room and chatted until shabbat went out and we improvised havdallah with tea and night lights. At shul Robbie asked me what I had planned to celebrate my conversion at shul to which I replied that I hadn't really thought it through. After the service he took me to chat to Shoshanna whom we thought was the chief warden but post has now passed on to someone else. She seemed quite enthusiastic about doing something in at the shul to make my conversion and told me to talk to the current chief warden. Rebecca than told me that the student service was the second shabbat after my conversion so it seems like a good idea to take it over a little bit to include a celebration of my conversion. I also asked Liana to witness my immersion and she said that she would more than happy to do it.
On Saturday night I went to see The Last King of Scotland with Alec as he really wanted to go and see it*. It was horrible and I burst into tears as we left the cinema**.
On Sunday I went all the way to Sutton to meet the other members of my A-level further maths class for lunch. As the bus I was on approached I realised that I hadn't been to the area in over three years. It was like turning a corner and finding oneself in the landscape of one's dreams. If anyone had asked me to draw a map of the area I would have been completely unable to and yet as the bus went along the main road I almost instinctively knew that down that road was the house where one of my friends had lived or what the next thing the bus would pass would be. Everything was also saturated with memories, the newspaper stand I used to buy Diva magazine from, a restaurant where a photo I still have was taken at someone's birthday. It felt like if I wasn't careful I would fall down a rabbit hole and the last four and a half years of my life would only have been a dream.
Lunch was nice and we stayed in Pizza Express for ages talking about what we'd been up to and reminiscing about things that happened at school***. Two of the girls there had bumped into people who had done economics with me at Queens'. People with good mathematical degrees are a very small world.
*He has a slight obsession with Idi Amin due to the John Bird radio monologues.
**I didn't see anyone else in the cinema crying so I'm probably a bit more sensitive than most people.
***This included quite a lot of 'crazy thing Emily did' stories.