May update

This is taken from a letter written to the scholarship committee back at Winsor.

Salut de printemps à Paris!  I can't believe I only have a month left.
Each day for the past five days, I've run into someone whom I know on the street
or on the metro around Paris: it's a sign that I really feel at home here.  I
keep repeating to myself that I'll always have Paris, but at the same time, I
know that the people that I've met here will not be here when I come back, and I
won't be the same person either.  I'm trying to savor the city and the people in
it while I still can.

I just had another picnic to assemble my friends and to make sure that I
got to say goodbye to everyone before they start to leave.  This time we went to
the Bois de Boulogne, on the other side of Paris.  The crowd ended up being very
international. Besides the Americans from AYA, I invited my French friends
(Benjamin, Michael and Marylou from my dance class), two friends from my
painting class (a Swedish girl and a South Korean girl), a German art history
student I met in line for an exhibit at the Louvre, a Basque girl from Spain, an
English friend and her Syrian boyfriend, and an Austrian girl from my
Impressionism art history class.  We all spoke in French as a common language
and shared home-cooked food under the trees near a French Girl Scout troop until
a rainstorm made us run for cover, and then dried off at a café at the Place
St-Michel.  I'm definitely coming back with a healthy appreciation for French
cooking, coffee, pastry and cheese, and even a bit of knowledge in wine tasting;
I've learned how to make some desserts from my host mom, and I hope to put them
to good use in the future.

I got very involved in the political scene here during the Presidential
elections, which was one of the reasons why it took me so long to write.  I've
been reading the newspapers almost every day and watch the news as much as
possible (I've come to really like Libération for its accessible layout, and Le
Monde for its editorials).  In April, I followed the Bayrou centrist phenomenon,
as he came up from behind against the two-party domination of the system.  I
grew to admire Ségolène Royal's determination and be frustrated with her
blunder-filled campaign.  And I watched the rise of Nicolas Sarkozy, the
Minister of the Interior posing squarely against his mentor Chirac and using his
orating skills to advance right-wing (including some extreme right-wing) ideas
to eventual success.  During the first round of voting, when my host family went
to vote, I went into the voting station and asked whether I could volunteer to
count votes; to my surprise, they let me do it!  It was a great experience: I
got to meet politically involved people, make a personal difference in the
election, and see who people voted for in my arrondissement.  The seventh
arrondissement is fairly rich and entitled, so I wasn't surprised to see a lot
of support for Sarkozy, and even for Bayrou, to Royal's detriment.  I was
surprised, though, to see a few votes for Jean-Marie Le Pen, the extreme
right-wing racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic candidate, in the educated center of
Paris.  After the first round of voting, I went to the Socialist Party rally
just 10 minutes away from my house, to join in on the Young Socialists' party
and hear Ségolène's partner, Francois Hollande, speak.  Then it was time for the
frienzied two weeks between the rounds, when Ségo and Sarko had a chance to
really fight it out before the final vote.  I went to go watch the televised
debate between them before the second round with some other students at the
American college center at Reid Hall, and watched Ségolène go on the offensive
and Sarkozy display some unusual calm, which I originally thought was to her
advantage, but it turned out that she had gotten her facts wrong.  Some friends
invited me over to watch the results of the second round.  Once it had become
obvious that Sarkozy had won, I left to go with Benjamin to the UMP headquarters
(Sarkozy's party) to watch Sarkozy's victory speech, and then see the concert
and celebration at the Place de la Concorde.  The crowd was more diverse than I
expected, but more homogenous and older than the Socialist crowd.  In fact,
after the speech by the UMP headquarters, I was interviewed by the New York
Times and the BBC as an English speaker!  (Neither interview was published.)
Because France is so centralized, I could get very close to the action in Paris;
I felt like I was in the absolute center of what was going on.  It was very
exciting.  This election in Paris was also a great time and place to get a taste
of what politics is like.  With all the energy of a new generation coming to
power, the larger-than-life personalities, and the last-minute maneuvering, I
think I've gotten a good taste of the excitement and tension in politics.

Most young people I've met aren't big fans of Sarkozy, but Benjamin is an
exception.  When people ask me about who I would have voted for, I usually say
Ségolène Royal.  I appreciate Sarkozy's guarded pro-American policy ("France and
America should be friends, but we should also remember that good friends should
be free to disagree on some issues"), and I think that he'll bring some good
reform to the French economy, but I'm turned off by his policies on immigration,
his catering to the extreme right, and some of his stranger ideas, notably some
statements on eugenics.  Things have seemed more promising now that he's been
elected, though.  Sarkozy has been opening up his government by including
centrist and left-wing ministers, and I think that may temper the more extreme
parts of his program.  I'm very curious to see what happens to France over the
next five years.

Besides politics, I've been keeping up with my other activities around
town.  I've enjoyed several more museums and concerts, including the stunningly
original collection of the newly opened Musée du Quai Branly, which shows
examples of human creativity from around the world.  I was pleased to see that
the Comédie Francaise performance of "Cyrano de Bergerac" that I enjoyed so much
in January won a Molière award (the Tony equivalent, with a much more
educational feel) for best publicly-funded play.  I've still been going to the
Israeli Dance class, and I just handed in my portfolio for the studio painting
class.  While I've been at the atelier (studio), my painting has definitely
progressed, and I've also made some unlikely friends and gained a new
appreciation for the work that artists put into the paintings I look at in
museums.  I've taken on full responsibility for my class of sixth and
seventh-graders at the American synagogue, and I've learned to write lesson
plans, get the kids to pay attention, tell engaging stories, and comfort a
crying student.  I've also been working hard in my classes; I've given three
oral presentations, written a 22-page paper about the separation of church and
state in France, and have written a paper about post-9/11 US policy from a
French point of view (which definitely forced me see things from another
perspective).  I've been in many situations that have challenged my competence,
but I feel like I'm more prepared to take on the world as a result.

I'm so grateful for the chance to have had this year.  I've definitely
forced myself to leave my room and its balcony and explore the greater world of
politics, education, relationships, and art, and I think I've gained valuable
perspective and experience.  When I start college next year, I'll be happy to
bring my knowledge to another group of people, and to start learning from them.
It will be a little strange, though, to go back into the educational bubble
after I've already left it for a year to live life in a city.  I will miss the
independence, the unpredictability, and the feeling of discovering something new
every day that I've had here.  Perhaps I'll move back to Paris someday.