Living with Monks

So a few months ago I moved house.    My lease was ending and my house-mates were moving away, so I needed a new place.  Luckily, my friend (read: monk 1), suggested that I could live at his house.  I had been

there a couple times for parties (monk parties, for the win!) and it seemed pretty nice: big Victorian house, nice garden, Orthodox church in the back yard, etc.  So, in light of having basically no other real options, I said yes and put in an application.

And, basically—it’s been great!  My room is lovely; it is on the top floor overlooking the garden and it is the perfect size and has an amazing view of trees and church towers.  And the rent is cheaper than basically anywhere else in Oxford.  Can you say, win?

The house is meant as a sort of ecumenical meeting place, for those from different backgrounds and faiths to be able to exchange ideas.  However, there is a distinctively Eastern Orthodox flavour to the house (and well, there is the whole church-in-the-back-yard thing).   Most people in the house study something either Greek or Byzantine related, and it is not unusual to hear phrases such as ‘well, in Syriac…’

But yeah, the best thing about this house is that it is full of very odd people—and, in my book at least, weird people are the best!  My neighbour is a Buddhist monk (aka monk 2).  He can be seen running around in distinctive red and orange garb—aka, his robe.  He only has one (making laundry days a bit tricky…).  But yeah, he is super

nice and makes really good tea.  His best friend in the house is a tall, skinny, sarcastic Italian guy who likes to (secretly) smoke cigars in his room and walks around the house at night wearing a vintage ‘smoking cap’ and gown. Then there is the Lebanese guy downstairs who works on an unknown eastern medieval philosopher, and who is constantly involved in some sort of personal drama involving  girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, or soon –to-be ex-girlfriends.  Then of course, there is my friend from before, the other monk—of the Eastern Orthodox variety.   He is a cool dude; he was a monk at Mount Athos in Greece where his job was to take care of the monastery’s library… and then the library burned down (fail).  So now he is at Oxford getting his PhD while they rebuild it.

So…we make an interesting bunch.  Let me give you an example of a normal evening in the house, aka yesterday evening.

Monk 2: ‘Hey Merskank, we are going to watch a film down in the kitchen.  Do you want to join?’

Me: ‘What are you watching’.

Monk 2: ‘It’s a documentary on Derrida’.

[yes,  this really is how we apparently spend our Sunday nights]

Me :  ‘…… Okay.’

*movie begins*

*30 minutes into the movie has to be stopped because Monk 1 and Monk 2 are engaged in heated debate about the nature of the personality and whether personal attributes are essential or malleable*

*the audience starts taking bets on which monk will win.  I place my bets on monk 1*

*At last, the film is resumed*

—

Basically, I love my house.