The Bois and More!

Monday I had French class from 9-11am. After that, Shaina and I decided to venture over to the Bois du Vincennes, which is within walking distance of where she lives. We made a quick stop at her apartment so she could drop off her things and take a quick shower (she was in Spain all weekend and took a sleeper train back to make it to class that morning) and then we were off! We entered the woods from what appeared to be a very unused area and had to meander around for a while using the map from my guidebook to find the populated pretty part. There was a beautiful lake, which we walked halfway around until we saw the zoo and decided to take a detour there since Shaina is a biology major. The zoo was pretty quiet as it was a Monday afternoon, but we wandered around and got to see Giraffes much closer up than you would ever be in the U.S. There was only a small ditch and a rope fence between us. The zookeeper did have to come out once and yell at the Giraffe for getting too close… The monkeys also provided a great deal of entertainment and there were a couple of baby monkeys that were extra cute to watch interacting with the adults. I would guess we spend a good 20 minutes just staring at the monkeys. After we were done at the zoo we continued our path along the other half of the lake and then I headed home for dinner.

My host mother made zucchini mousse (aka soup) and a chicken and green bean dish. It was rather delicious! I took a picture of the table because it just looked so cute and French! We tried this new red wine last night that my host mother really liked and I found interesting. Red wine here seems to have a lot more flavor than in the U.S. I had tried a red wine from Spain that Shaina ordered at lunch last week and it also had a lot flavor – almost spicy!


Today I went to class again… oh the repetition! And then I decided to go buy tickets for High Holiday services. Well first there were metro problems… there was some sort of technical problem at the Montparnasse station (really big – has like 4 or 5 lines through it) and it was backing up trains 3 stations away. So after sitting around for like 10 minutes and changing train 2 or 3 times I finally found one that was going somewhere and made it work for getting to the synagogue I was trying to find. I got off at the metro spot, picked a street that I hoped was the street I saw on Google Maps a day earlier and hoped I was headed in the right direction. Luckily I was, and I found the synagogue without too much of a problem. The secretary was really nice and printed out maps and hours and everything for me so I’m all set to go now, I still can’t get over how expensive tickets were though! After that I headed back to the metro, but it was lunchtime and I was hungry. I sat down outside at a café next to the metro stop and ordered a kir (white wine with crème de casis liqueur) and a sandwich with goat cheese. Both yummy, but I’m still trying to get used to the fact that the French put butter on their cheese sandwiches… it’s slightly strange and I can feel the extra calories!

This evening I went to see Mamma Mia with my host mother and her friend, tickets were only 3.50 euro because of a special “back to school” type promotion!! The movie was cute, but I felt guilty listening to so much English. I did however have to read the French subtitles a couple of times when I could understand/ hear what they were saying in English! For dinner we had Farsi tomatoes (hollowed tomatoes stuffed with a beef and herb mixture with eggplant and squash on the side – all baked). Now I’ve just about finished my homework and am debating between just going to bed or reading for a little while. I don’t have class until 1:30 tomorrow!!

One last thing. I was just talking to my dad on the phone and looking at the schedule for High Holiday services and I noticed that this synagogue does Tashlich (for all my non-Jewish readers: a symbolic purging of sins by throwing bread crumbs into flowing water) on the Seine by the Eiffel Tower… how amazing is that?! I’m definitely going!!!