So I'm sitting at my desk listening to Christmas music via iTunes on an American radio station and the Hanukkah song comes on. Obviously. Adam Sandler is a staple in American Christmas music. Out of curiosity I ask outloud "Do they play the Hanukkah song here?" Silence. Then someone asks "What's Hanukkah?" "Oh is that that thing that is every other Friday?" What??? What's Hanukkah?? So I dig back (for the second time since being here) to my grade school education and everything Gabby's mom Mrs. Silverlight ever taught us once a year since I moved to Green Brook. I tell my colleagues that Hanukkah is the festival of lights, celebrating when the jewish people were hiding from someone (I took some liberties here because I'm a little foggy) and they had to burn candles but they only had a little oil left. Well through some miracle the oil lasting for 8 days in a row and all the Jewish people survived. One person goes, ohhh I think I've heard of the festival of lights or something. Someone else asks if I am Jewish and is that why I know so much about it. This is the first time someone has asked me if I was Jewish and they were actually serious. Besides the fact that my last name is Christian and I went to Catholic University (which they all know because obviously I tell everyone that Catholic was the best school EVER), they also all know that I am going home for Christmas.
I then realized that no one here has ever played the dreidal game! Such a shame. We decided that the reason they probably never heard of Hanukkah is A) america is a country based on embracing differences and celebrating them so that's probably why I know about it and B) there are only 295,000 Jews in the UK vs the 5.3 million in America.
After that lesson my BOSS goes, well I don't know much about Judaism but I do know a joke! "Oh god" I shutter. She goes, "no no its really sweet though, its not bad at all! What is a jewish person's biggest dilemma? Free ham." "Oh god." I shutter again. But here in the land of the monarchy, anything goes! A few moments later when someone mentioned a company called "Go Native" my boss misheard the name thinking they mentioned a male reproductive organ and exclaimed that she would definitely buy something from that company. You have gotta love the lack of political correctness in this country.
I wasn't going to post anything today but I just had to share that story because its conversations like that that really remind me that I am in a foreign land. Have a great weekend!
1 comment:
Well I guess Kwanzaa it totally out then!
Your stories remind me of the old Star Trek episodes where they would transport down onto some sort of near-earth planet and everything would look normal and familiar. But then, there would be 2 suns or at night everyone would go to a festival where they'd kill some unlucky townsfolk. It's good you're coming home soon for a cultural detox via immersion into the complete normal-ness of the Garden State.
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