Saturday I went to the Madeline district which is basically composed of the Madeline (a really HUGE church constructed in the ancient Greek/ Roman style) and lots of designer/ couture shops that made me really depressed I’m not living off of a large trust-fund. Dior had some amazing looking purses as well as Hermès in addition to their coveted scarves. I also wandered past the windows of Chanel, Longchamps and many others. Sunday I stayed at home, rested and tried to get ahead on homework since I knew I’d be missing class on Tuesday… obviously that didn’t work out so well, despite that I thought I got a decent amount done.
La Madèline
Monday I went to classes and then synagogue in the evening with Shaina, another girl from IES. I found a conservative synagogue in the 15th arrondisement that I really like – it feels almost like I’m back in the states, except for the French. I went back again Tuesday for services, but after 4+ hours my brain was feeling tired from trying to be trilingual. I returned to the apartment and tried to get a little more homework done before setting out for the Eiffel Tower to do Tashlich by the Seine (Tashlich is a service done between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur where we symbolically cast away our sins from the previous year by throwing bread crumbs in a running body of water). I met up with Shaina and we waited a little while for the rest of the congregation to show up. As we were getting ready to start, an Orthodox synagogue showed up and we all scooted away as to not intermingle – silly Jews! We did Tashlich and then as Shaina and I were about to leave this lady came up to us and started talking 20 miles a minute in French about Orthodox Jews: how she used to be one, how there were so many girls there just to find husbands and numerous other things. She barely gave Shaina and I a chance to throw in a “oui” or “d’accord” in acknowledgement so I’m not sure if she even figured out we weren’t French by the end of the mostly one-sided, yet very interesting, conversation. In the course of her telling us a good chunk of her life history I figured out she was the cantor’s wife! She seemed really friendly, so maybe I’ll run into her again at services.
Where we did Tashlich
Wednesday and Thursday were just playing catch-up from what I missed at school. Today this girl at school told me about a designer consignment shop in the 17th arrondisement, which I am dying to go check out. Aparrently most of the stuff is only worn once and they have Prada shoes, Louis Vuitton and Hermès purses and Hermès scarves... While still out of my price range one of these items might be buyable at the end of the semester if I'm good about not spendin too much money!
This evening (Thursday) my host mother invited the couple in the apartment next door over for an “aperitif.” Angeline and Loren (?? Maybe I’m not sure if that is his name now) are in their early 30’s I would guess – Angeline might be a tad younger and the both seem really genial and kind (they’re also Jewish – and there was much talk about who was Sephardic and who was Ashkenazic and making fun of the Sepharadim by the lady who is Ashkenazic – I’m sorry if I’ve lost my non-Jewish readers). We got invited over to their apartment tomorrow night for a surprise birthday party for the man’s daughter from his previous marriage (she’s turning 7!). I also got invited to go out to dinner with them and Angeline’s brother next Friday at 10:30pm at some restaurant, I can’t even remember there. Angeline also is planning on taking me out clubbing sometime soon as she was horrified to hear I haven’t been yet and her brother is a DJ at one of the big clubs in Paris. She seemed very excited to have someone to go clubbing with and warned Marie-Claire that we might not get back until 4am… at least we live in the same building so I won’t be going home by myself at that hour! I think that’s all for now, I’m rather exhausted, would like to catch up on my American TV a little and I have my first field trip for my architecture class tomorrow!
2 comments:
I'm jealous of all your adventures!
Oh yeah, there's the Masorti synagogue and the Orthodox synagogue. Where's the synagogue neither one of them would be caught dead in?
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