International savoir-faire
This is at least partly catch-up from the previous post.
Thanksgiving- in Paris! It was a pretty surreal experience- no vacation, no family gathering, no decorations, no cranberries, which are almost impossible to find in France. But there was a turkey. The AYA directrice, Madame Schneersohn, invited all of us, plus some of her family and friends, over for Thanksgiving dinner. The director of AYA in the US had sent over Thanksgiving-themed paper plates, cups and napkins, and the non-vegetarians enjoyed homemade turkey and stuffing, while the vegetarians ate mashed potatoes, cucumber slices, and baby carrots. (This was one of the few occasions where I've felt like breaking vegetarianism- but I held out.) It was very nice to see all the AYA people, and to catch up on the adventures of some people I hadn't seen in weeks.
Another big development- through the UEJF (French Hillel) website, I discovered Israeli dancing classes, and I've now gone to two of them. As I thought, it's been a good way to get to know French Jewish students, and have a peek at how the Jewish community here works. The classes meet in the Marais on the second floor of a building with a shop on the ground floor, and are taught by a 22-year-old student and her 19-year-old brother. After the first class, I went out to dinner with a group of six to try what claims to be (and I can believe it) the best falafel in Paris at "L'As de Fallafel", or the Ace of Falafels. I worked out a conversation arrangement with a guy named Michael, who's 19 and in his second year of "prepa" or preparation to get into a grande ecole. So on Saturday, I went over to his house (he lives a few blocks away from me), and we helped each other with our French/English, first speaking in English for an hour- I wrote down expressions he didn't know- and then for the rest of the time in French. Somehow the conversation turned to philosophy, fractals, and politics; he's a very neat guy. His father, Daniel Sibony, has written 31 books on the politics of the Middle East, similarities and differerences between the three big monotheistic religions, psychology, and mathematics; they've been translated into many languages, just not English, because he hasn't found a translator he likes yet. I looked at some of them, and I'd love to read some of his work. On the religion issue, the dad grew up in Morocco, and so can read the Koran in Arabic and has an interesting point of view. Anyway, Michael and I went to a movie on Saturday night; I think he's going out with another girl from the dance class, but I'm not absolutely sure. On Sunday night I invited two AYA people with me to the dance class, which was interesting but made me a little less willing to put myself out and meet people speaking French. I'm going to keep doing the conversation things- it's really helpful to have someone correcting me, and Michael's very nice.
I also met more European people studying at the Sorbonne last Friday at a gathering for French Sorbonne students and ERASMUS Sorbonne students. ERASMUS is a European Union program which makes it easy for European students to study abroad in other countries and get their credits transferred, and also provides advisors. There are a fair number of ERASMUS students at the Sorbonne, and this was an event to get to know other ERASMUS and French people. For some reason Mme Schneersohn heard about it, so I went with Chesna, but when we got there we were the only two Americans there. I got to meet people from Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Ireland, and it was interesting to compare their experiences to mine. I've been getting a lot of international exposure.
As always, behind the punctuation of museums and meetings, there is the daily grind of school and homework, as I realize that I actually do have lots of essays to write and tests to study for. I also went babysitting again, and had a very nice time with Chiara.
I'm going to go to Brussels tomorrow for a rally for Israel, or specifically for the Israeli prisoners still in Lebanon and Gaza. I thought it would be a good opportunity to get to meet other UEJF people, but also get to see a new city and meet Belgian and German Jewish students. I'll see how it goes- I'll be spending a long time on the road tomorrow. I guess I'd better finish up, then.
Thanksgiving- in Paris! It was a pretty surreal experience- no vacation, no family gathering, no decorations, no cranberries, which are almost impossible to find in France. But there was a turkey. The AYA directrice, Madame Schneersohn, invited all of us, plus some of her family and friends, over for Thanksgiving dinner. The director of AYA in the US had sent over Thanksgiving-themed paper plates, cups and napkins, and the non-vegetarians enjoyed homemade turkey and stuffing, while the vegetarians ate mashed potatoes, cucumber slices, and baby carrots. (This was one of the few occasions where I've felt like breaking vegetarianism- but I held out.) It was very nice to see all the AYA people, and to catch up on the adventures of some people I hadn't seen in weeks.
Another big development- through the UEJF (French Hillel) website, I discovered Israeli dancing classes, and I've now gone to two of them. As I thought, it's been a good way to get to know French Jewish students, and have a peek at how the Jewish community here works. The classes meet in the Marais on the second floor of a building with a shop on the ground floor, and are taught by a 22-year-old student and her 19-year-old brother. After the first class, I went out to dinner with a group of six to try what claims to be (and I can believe it) the best falafel in Paris at "L'As de Fallafel", or the Ace of Falafels. I worked out a conversation arrangement with a guy named Michael, who's 19 and in his second year of "prepa" or preparation to get into a grande ecole. So on Saturday, I went over to his house (he lives a few blocks away from me), and we helped each other with our French/English, first speaking in English for an hour- I wrote down expressions he didn't know- and then for the rest of the time in French. Somehow the conversation turned to philosophy, fractals, and politics; he's a very neat guy. His father, Daniel Sibony, has written 31 books on the politics of the Middle East, similarities and differerences between the three big monotheistic religions, psychology, and mathematics; they've been translated into many languages, just not English, because he hasn't found a translator he likes yet. I looked at some of them, and I'd love to read some of his work. On the religion issue, the dad grew up in Morocco, and so can read the Koran in Arabic and has an interesting point of view. Anyway, Michael and I went to a movie on Saturday night; I think he's going out with another girl from the dance class, but I'm not absolutely sure. On Sunday night I invited two AYA people with me to the dance class, which was interesting but made me a little less willing to put myself out and meet people speaking French. I'm going to keep doing the conversation things- it's really helpful to have someone correcting me, and Michael's very nice.
I also met more European people studying at the Sorbonne last Friday at a gathering for French Sorbonne students and ERASMUS Sorbonne students. ERASMUS is a European Union program which makes it easy for European students to study abroad in other countries and get their credits transferred, and also provides advisors. There are a fair number of ERASMUS students at the Sorbonne, and this was an event to get to know other ERASMUS and French people. For some reason Mme Schneersohn heard about it, so I went with Chesna, but when we got there we were the only two Americans there. I got to meet people from Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Ireland, and it was interesting to compare their experiences to mine. I've been getting a lot of international exposure.
As always, behind the punctuation of museums and meetings, there is the daily grind of school and homework, as I realize that I actually do have lots of essays to write and tests to study for. I also went babysitting again, and had a very nice time with Chiara.
I'm going to go to Brussels tomorrow for a rally for Israel, or specifically for the Israeli prisoners still in Lebanon and Gaza. I thought it would be a good opportunity to get to meet other UEJF people, but also get to see a new city and meet Belgian and German Jewish students. I'll see how it goes- I'll be spending a long time on the road tomorrow. I guess I'd better finish up, then.
posted by Abby | 1:46 PM
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