Merry Christmas, Part I

And a Happy New Year. But that's all.

Christmas. I know I've discussed it a lot over the past month, but I've had a somewhat surprising realization and a confirmation of my thoughts. I was in the kitchen last week talking with a Jewish girl from California, who is taking a year long study abroad from Johns Hopkins. We were broadly discussing religion in England and I was commenting how being a Christian in England feels much different than being a Christian in the United States. It was then that I realized that a particular phrase has been completely absent from my day-to-day life this winter:

Happy Holidays.

To me, as an American, it's hardly Christmas without having to interpret "Happy Holidays" to suit my personal tastes. Where did it go? England isn't so different than the US. How could it then be that English pop culture seems to only celebrate Christmas? What about Hanukkah (which started last night, by the way), Kwanza, etc etc?

I asked the girl about what it was like to be Jewish in England and the response was really interesting. I'll skip the details here, erring to confidentiality, but after comparing experiences, we came to the conclusion that it is generally harder to be openly religious here than in the US. Sure, there's a spattering of churches and presumably a reasonably sized population of people practicing many different faiths, but when religion arises as a topic of conversation among friends, it is almost exclusively from an objective academic or historical context. One could say that discourse observes religion under a microscope, from the outside looking in, as a scientist or social researcher would do; never from a (subjective) personal standpoint, where much of the value of religion lies.

Consequently, what happens at this time of year for a culture seemingly lacking openly religious people? All that remains is a secular holiday called Christmas. To some extent, "Merry Christmas" is like "Happy Holidays" in England. If you happen to be a Christian, then it's convenient that the secular holiday is the same, but if you practice another faith, then you extract what little meaning you can from the phrase and move on.

I'm not sure where the best answer lies in this complicated question: is it better to have a culture in which everyone whines and complains if their beliefs are not represented adequately, or rather a culture in which one faith's greeting has been chewed up in a secular forum and regurgitated as a generic holiday greeting? It's merely complicated by the fact that Christmas itself was originally a pagan holiday to celebrate the lengthening of days and the coming of spring, only to be adopted later by Christians as their second most important day of the liturgical year.


 Who knows, but I do know my laundry is done and I need to pack so I can fly home for Christmas tomorrow. Look for a second, less philosophical blog later today as I recap a year of incredible experiences, new friendships, and unbelievable moments.

Odds and Ends

In the first 9 hours I was awake yesterday, the following weather pattern ensued:

Showers
Total sunshine
Overcast
Rain showers
Snow Flurries
Rain showers
Total sunshine
Overcast
Hail
Rain showers
English drizzle....

Where am I? This weather is so weird. 

Today, I woke up and it was bright, sunny, and 3 degrees C. A beautiful day, really. Naturally, however, it was overcast by 13:00 and raining by 15:00. The rain continues, even now... and it's still 3 degrees.

In other temperature-related news, I realized over the weekend that my room was colder than the corridor, apparently because the radiator wasn't working. I like sleeping in cool temperatures, but when I finally started freezing, I decided it would be good to fill in a maintenance request. Now I have a working radiator! It's amazing how good a little warmth feels in the winter time. Undoubtedly, it will be amazing come January when it is cold and rainy every day.

In the category of fixing things, by the end of this past weekend, I decided that my arm and knee felt great, and that I should play some light squash with some friends to loosen up. Well... the good news is that my arm and knee felt great, but the bad news is that I wrecked my back. How? I don't know. I called a doctor on Monday, but he (over the phone) said that 'back pain is common' and I should just take loads of ibuprofen and reassess later in the week. So here it is Thursday and - while I don't need the ibuprofen any more - I am still experiencing a fair bit of localized discomfort in my lower back and right hip. Words cannot express how not thrilled I am. I'll see how tonight goes and maybe I'll call the doctor back tomorrow.

What else is new? Last night I made stir fry, which was quite tasty. I borrowed a rice cooker with an aluminum bowl, but the lack of a non-stick surface meant that cooked rice became glued to the bottom. Some overnight soaking did the trick.

That wasn't really a particularly culturally-relevant story, but I figured I'd throw it in to show that life is still fairly normal in a lot of ways. It was also the first anecdote I could think of.

Well, tonight I figured out who I'm going to vote for in the Republican Primary in a few months (which is for me to know and you to guess). Yes, I still follow American news, but I have to admit, it's thrown into the mix of UK, EU, and world headlines. On that note, if you are not familiar with Google Reader, you should really check it out! It makes it extremely easy to pull in headlines from many different news sources, including - I assume - this blog! I am subscribed to BBC news, ESPN, Popular Science, an academic database (for my research!), and xkcd.com (a fantastic web comic). Check it out!

That's all for now. Can't wait to be home for Christmas next week, but until then, here I remain, soaking up Oxford (literally!)