jewish cardiff plus other bits...

so the high holidays came and went and i went to synagogue and then came back again (see the word play?! eh eh... yeah its kind of weak... but its late here so i'll give myself the benefit of doubt). so for rosh hashana (5770 baby!) i went with ronen the falafel guy. the synagogue i went to was the orthodox one which is led by a chabad rabbi, but its not a chabbad synagogue. cardiff has two synagogues (the joke about two synagogues is true...) the second one is reform and is led supposedly by a woman that has converted to judaism and has great legs and wears mini skirts (i have been told this by a non-jewish english man who married an israeli lady...). there were maybe 30 people there, three women. see, its orthodox but not hardcore - the women are facing the men and the mehitza (the dividing wall) is made of glass. so there is definite distraction going on... the people who showed up were mostly old men. not many youngsters. the rabbi is an english chap from manchester who studied computer science before becoming religious. has 5 kids now - and his wife is still young... he took a liking to me, and don't tell me that it's just because he is a chabad rabbi, darnit! anyway, i had dinner at his house that evening and met some of the israelies that work in cardiff. they all work in the carts at the mall selling dead sea products or hair stuff that provide curls. i guess the brits love curls (correction - i know the brits love curls, i went out with one of the israelies to a few clubs and he has a head full of curls and man, the girls were just magnetized to his head).
anyway, a funny thing about the synagogue. now i have seen a good number of synagogues in a few countries, and all of them take something from the local land in style - either in architecture, decorations, etc. in this synagogue, of course the accents were welsh - which was cute, to hear hebrew prayers in a welsh accent. the synagogue itself is quite new - 2002 - so the style is nothing in particular. but there is a special prayer on the wall - for the queen. in hebrew. i found this quite amusing.
the next week was yom kipur - the day of atonement. it was also the first day of school - but that's a completely different story. so i did what i usually do, and bought two puzzles in preparation. karen, one of the israelies that i met on rosh hashana, lives with a few other israelies who were not keeping the holiday, and wanted a place to fast, so she came and spent the night in my guest room. first guest!!! it was nice having someone to talk to through the holiday. someone i didn't know well (which means angry feelings of hunger and thirst could not come out... not that i was that hungry, but still). it was actually some what intimate to share yom kipur with someone. anyway - synagogue was more packed this time. some kids even. and an older israeli lady who met me once, who the first night said that karen and i are a great match, and the next evening called me over and said that she chatted with her a little bit and decided that maybe she is not that great of a match for me... ahhh, israelies.
some interesting cultural differences. not all the men wear talis here (the white cloth that goes over the shoulders, sometimes heads, worn in synagogues on special days when the torah is taken out). only the ones that are married or have been married. thats the cultural custom. i brought mine the first time and was asked if i am married.
the community, which i saw a bit more of on yom kipur, is not large. i was told it might be around 3000 people. of course when people hear you are from israel, they all want to tell you about the last time they went, what they saw, that their daughter is moving there, that their son studied there, etc. all in a welsh accent of course... the rabbi's accent though is manchesterian (?), which means all right he says all rice.
i told all my friends here about the holidays - they know very little here about judaism. in the states there are so many jewish references in pop culture, i now realize, here very few. so its interesting to tell people about rosh hashana - impress them with 5770 (2009, com'on...) and a full day of fasting.
the puzzles if you are asking were not too difficult. one was 250 of a maze, so i thought it'd be tough, but it wasn't too bad once you got the idea. the other had a ridiculous sky - completely dark, but besides that was quite easy.

finally - here are some photos -
bought some new kitchen ware, went to a fancy kitchen store. so fun. my new attitude is - i am getting paid a bit better than before, i can afford to pay a bit more for higher quality things. it begins in the kitchen!!!

my first making of schug. here is the UK version of the green monster...

and finally - swine flu is such a big deal here. here is a poster in the math department:

you are supposed to have TWO flu buddies in case you catch the virus. and then you are not to leave your house, just call the doctor and if 3 of the 10 conditions are met, you have swine flu. use your buddy to protect yourself, protect us all. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!