February 18, 2005

Budapest sights (& a conference)

Posted by Eszter

I just came across some beautiful pictures [link to PowerPoint slides] of synagogues in Budapest most of which I have never seen despite it being my hometown. You will notice that they are tucked away with quite some care in several cases, which makes it easy to miss them. The photographer has many other slideshows available on his Web site.

I have also posted some photos of the main synagogue and my high school, but mostly of communist era statues gathered up in a Statue Park on the outskirts of the city.

Social scientists looking for a conference excuse to see these sights may want to consider submitting an abstract to the annual meetings of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics to be held this summer in Budapest. Abstracts are due March 1, 2005.

September 17, 2004

You've all done very well...

Posted by Harry

I had a surreal day on Wednesday. I drove to Milwaukee for an appointment at the newly re-organised USCIS to get my green card renewed for another 10 years. I forgot my BBC7 tapes of London Particulars, so instead spent the whole drive there listening to my favourite 1970’s Boxed Set. The appointment was odd enough — it lasted 10 minutes, and not only was everyone charming to me, but they were charming to the other 3 immigrants (who weren’t white, and didn’t have mock-posh English accents) too. A general reticence about these matters precludes me from publicising the interesting things that happened there. Anyway, that wasn’t the really surreal bit.

After the appointment I wandered round downtown Milwaukee because I couldn’t face getting back in the car so soon. I happened upon the Watts tea rooms and china shop, so went in for a posh cup of tea (Welsh morning tea — a powerful mix of Assam and Darjeeling I’d guess). In itself this was peculiar — it had the air of a 1950’s posh hotel in somewhere like Brecon or Abergavenny. All the other customers were well dressed women somewhat older than me, themselves looking like extras out of All Creatures Great and Small. One exception: a very old man in a wheelchair who looked stunningly like Mr Grace (but was not, mercifully, tended to by an anonymous dolly bird). After my tea I went downstairs to the china shop and looked around, and bought a little piece of cut-price Wedgwood. The shop assistant and I remarked to each other what a good deal it was to get a nice piece of Wedgwood for that price, and then she said: “Oh, Lord Wedgwood visits us every year in November. Would you like to come to tea with Lord Wedgwood this November? We’ve been here 130 years you know, every since Mr. Watts founded the shop”.

Just as I was thinking that it couldn’t get any stranger, the Mr. Grace-look-alike came out of the elevator, and, as he wheeled across the floor, all the staff stood to attention. Then he was accosted by a staff-member who, I swear, resembled Miss Brahms. ‘Hello Mr. Watts, I just wanted to say hello, and see how your arm is doing… etc etc’. The staff lined up as he exited the building. I looked up at the portrait of the founder, Mr. Watts, on the wall, and the man in the wheelchair was the spitting image.

Made my week.

July 01, 2004

Paris notes

Posted by Eszter

Since many of you kindly offered suggestions on what I should do while in Paris, I thought I’d post a note about my trip. I include some reflections on random things I took note of (e.g. garbage disposals, toilet fees, price checks in stores).

Cool. Fête de la Musique. If you have a choice about when you visit Paris, I highly recommend including June 21st in your travel plans. It is an all-night program of free concerts all across town. It was a blast. Just imagine, walking around Paris with various free concerts scattered all across town. Awesome. And as you can imagine, the fact that France beat Switzerland in soccer that evening only added to the celebratory mood.

Cool. Government support of the arts. Related to the above is the fact that unlike in the U.S., government support for the arts is quite common in Europe. I doubt many people took particular note of the large sign behind a stage with the words “Ministère des Affaires &Eegu;trangères” on it, but for me it stood out as it’s not something one would often see in the States (maybe local government is better about this around here?).

Not cool. Closed off garbage bins in the Paris subway. Apparently, right after the bombings in Madrid, all of the garbage bins in Paris were closed off. The “solution” has been to put a flat cardboard paper container on the ground right next to them. The result: disgusting piles of trash of various sizes around the bins. Even if people aim at the paper trays, by the time the light waste makes it to the ground it scatters all over. A better solution would seem to be transparent bins or something along those lines. I did see some of these on the streets. Maybe they are getting around to introducing them in the subway. (Of course, people from some cities may respond that at least they have garbage disposals of some sort!)

Cool. Metro 6. This is one of those things that a tourist would rarely pick up on, but many may enjoy it if they knew about it. The #6 metro goes above ground for a good chunk of the way. It passes very close to the Eiffel Tower and I think offers a wonderful view of the area. I remembered this from the time when I spent a month in Paris many years ago and took this line to class every day. Taking it from the Trocadero stop going West will offer this nice view.

Cool. Photo exhibit on fence of Jardin de Luxembourg. The northern side of the Jardin features a row of large World War II photographs with captions (in both French and English). It seemed to be in honor of the 60th anniversary of D Day. I don’t know if they use this space for photo exhibits at other times, it is certainly a neat idea.

Huh? Cost of using the toilet at Notre Dame: 41c. It made no sense to me to ask for that particular sum for use of the toilets at Notre Dame. The machines only seem to take exact change. How many tourists have that kind of exact change? I would have preferred to just pay 50c then have to bother finding the exact coins. A staff member seems to have it as her full time job to make change for people lining up. This made no sense to me.

Cool. Electronic price tags in stores. It seemed to me that the price tags on the shelves of a supermarket near where I was staying (thanks, Maria!:) were electronically managed. This seems to make a lot of sense. Of course, systems can go down, which would be unfortunate in such a case, but as long as the system is up, it seems a great way to change prices centrally instead of someone having to run around the store changing the little stickers all the time.

Not cool. $5 soft drinks. I found the price of non-alcoholic drinks at sit-down places ridiculous. Wine was often cheaper. I am sure this comes as pleasant news for many, but since I’m not much of a wine fan, I didn’t like it. And paying $5 for a silly drink seemed extreme. (And thus my supermarket experience, where I bought cute little cans of drinks just perfect to quench one’s thirst instead of the regular ones that I can never finish anyway.)

Overall, the trip was great despite some of the not cool moments.;) Numerous friends happened to be in town at the same time and I enjoyed seeing them. It was also a great pleasure to meet Maria in person finally! I also spent a good chunk of my time just walking around in town, sitting on bridges or in parks and pondering things. It was quite a treat.

I’ll post about my London experience another time.

April 16, 2004

Free trip to Israel

Posted by Eszter

It’s that time of year again, time for 18-26-year-old Jews who have never been on an educational trip to Israel to sign up for a free trip. I went four years ago and it was truly an experience of a lifetime. I realize I went when things were calmer, but people have been going for the past four years without problems. Although at some level there is an underlying agenda – the organizers would like visitors to enjoy their time and develop an interest in Israel – there is nothing forced about the program. Many students who go are secular or have little connection to their Jewish heritage and keep questioning many things while there. We had very interesting discussions both amongst ourselves (you travel with a group of students and a few organizers) and with people we met there.

The fun programs (climbing the Masada, swimming in the Dead Sea, kayaking on the Jordan river) were interspersed with educational activities such as meeting with Israeli Arab students and talking to a Palestinian journalist. I arrived with many questions and left with even more of them. One thing I did learn was that the situation is much more complex than most people realize, especially from afar. I highly recommend this experience, and it won’t cost you a dime!

If there are any birthright israel alums out there who read CT, I would love to hear from you. Just yesterday I realized that someone else from my department had also gone on the trip. It is interesting to hear about others’ experiences.

The program seems to be run a bit differently from when I went four years ago so people will have to check the Web site for full eligibility details, but it looks like the following countries have programs set up: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Uruguay, UK, US.

PS. I know that it would be very easy to post hostile comments to this entry. Perhaps you could humor me and refrain from them although I realize that may be asking too much from some.