April in Paris

Apparently I no longer posses the attention span to blog. Hopefully that will be changing soon. I feel the need to express myself- and I've been doing so mostly through photography. However, I owe it to you all, and to myself, to articulate what has been going on in my life since my last post...

Dad came to visit!
It was soooo amazing to see my Pops. It's funny to think that I hadn't gotten a big ol' daddio hug in 7 months. Let me tell you- it was awesome! A slight recap of our week together: I picked him up at the airport, and felt terrible that I was running late. We took the train back into Paris and settled down. He brought a huuuuge suitcase of stuff for me (including a 3 lb bag of Hershey kisses, a 3 lb bag of peanut M&Ms, 2 cases of Annie's mac n cheese, and an incredible, $3 bright yellow sweatshirt from Job Lot). The first night, we went to the Louvre (Friday night is free for people under 26). We were there for about 45 minutes and cruised right over to the Mona Lisa. After a little walk around, we left in search of a restaurant. We went out to eat at yummy restaurants quite often that week. Everyday when I came home from work, my dad would be waiting in my living room with a bottle of red (already cracked open), a baguette, and a wheel of Camembert. Now, that's what I call service! Other highlights of his trip: We went to the lavish and incredibly ornate Palace de Versailles, explored around Montmartre, went to the weirdest museum ever (this crazy hunting museum called Musée de la Chasse et Nature), watched tons of episodes of 30 Rock, and just lounged around Paris. It was a great week. When he left, I felt quite homesick and lonely. It's slowly getting better, but it made me realize just how much I love bullshitting around with my dad. We are definitely partners in crime.

Passover
Thanks to George Fiebelkorn and Carol Shore, I was able to attend both Passover seders! (During Passover, there are 2 nights of important meals) It was really important for me to find somewhere to go, and I was starting to lose faith in finding families in Paris that would host me. However, these lovely people pulled through in the knick of time!

1. The first seder I went to was courtesy of George. The story is actually quite ridiculous in the sense that- it really is a small world after all. Every year I go to my favorite place in the world, Brooklin, Maine, and stay in an amazing house with amazing families and friends. George is the husband of my mom's former college roommate's sister. Well, apparently the Director of the American Library in Paris also goes to Brooklin every year too- mind you, this town and this house are really in the middle of no where. So, this Director just so happens to stay in a house on the same road as us. George contacted the guy, who then contacted the only Jewish family he knew in Paris. Low and behold, I end up at the house of a French-American family! (thank you George!!!) The mother is American, the father French. They have two kids- one of which is a freshman at Emerson college (go figure) and the other will be attending Brandeis in the fall (again, go figure). The seder was great. Everyone was so nice and welcoming. The service was a bit more reform than what I am used to, but I am in no position to complain. The food was great- we had lamb, which makes complete sense as there is a part of the story about the pascal lamb... but I had never eaten lamb at a seder before so it was quite new for me. Seder 1 = great success.

2. The second night was found courtesy of Carol. Carol did some networking for me and found a half-French family that attends the same Jewish summer camp as all of her kids. She contacted them, who set me up with the wife's sister just outside of Paris. I met up with the woman at her office, and we took the train out to her house. It was a bit awkward at first, but things started to warm up once we got to her house. In total, the seder consisted of me, her and her husband, her two kids aged 10 and 13, and both sets of grandparents. I was a bit worried that it would be slightly uncomfortable because I felt as if I were intruding on a very private night for them. However, I was quite wrong. Her mother was like any typical Jewish grandmother- it was awesome! Everyone was curious about where I come from, how I know how to speak French, how I ended up at their seder, and also my customs. This part was very interesting as they were Sephardi (middle-eastern decent) and I am Ashkenazi (eastern European decent). As it turns out, we have very different customs, melodies, and even pronunciation. Some interesting things of the night... In the beginning of the meal, maybe after the first blessing but I forget, a man takes the seder plate (there is a plate with significant objects regarding the story of Passover) and while everyone is singing a song, they lift the seder plate up and circle it over the heads of each person sitting at the table. The other interesting thing of the night came to a part of the service where we recite the 10 plagues and spill a drop of wine to represent the blood that was shed. In my family, we take our pinkie finger, drip it in wine, and then place a drop of wine on our plate each time a plague is said. However, they filled a wine glass to the brim, got a large silver bowl, and then also a large silver cup filled with water. Each time a plague is said, one person spills wine into the bowl, and another person quickly spills water into the bowl. I'm not positive, but from what I understood it was to symbolize washing the blood away. After the 10 plagues were recited and both cups were emptied into the bowl, the women stood up and carried the bowl away. Now, this is where a Tunisian tradition comes in. The women carried the bowl to the bathroom, started howling "lulululululululu" in a high pitched yelp, poured the bowl in the toilet, and flushed. It was hysterical. I thought the act of each drop of wine was to show that the blood of both Egyptians and the Jews were shed, so I'm not really sure why they flushed it all down the john. Either way, it was really fun and rather amusing. The family was so generous and great. They even found an English prayer book for me, and we all took turns reading the service. They loved hearing me read in English, and then they would read in French. The service sounded so elegant and beautiful in French.

So, the holidays were absolutely wonderful. I had a great time, learned a lot about different traditions, and met genuinely fantastic people.

School stuff
I forget if I posted this or not... meh. So, this past semester was more or less a living hell in terms of school. I had 13 classes (all in French) and took 13 final exams in only one week. I felt absolutely terrible about how I did, and was convinced that I failed most of them. The way the French system works is that they give out rattrapages, which are essentially re-takes. So, if you fail the exam and don't have a good enough grade to carry you through, you can retake the exam. I was convinced I would have at least 7 minimum to do. That would be more or less disastrous as you have to pass all 13 classes in order to pass. If you fail even one class, you have to redo the ENTIRE year. No way José. Well guess what folks?? I only have to do 3! Bappadabaaaa!!! This is huge for a few reasons:
1. It means that I'm not as completely worthless as I thought I was
2. I have less studying to do
3. There is absolutely no reason that I cannot pass 3 exams with 2 weeks of hard studying. This means that I will actually be able to stay here next year and end up graduating with a bachelors from Northeastern and whatever the French diploma at my school is.
4. By passing these exams and staying here next year, I may finally get closer and closer to achieving my lifelong goal: to become bilingual.

The job
I have to say, I think I really lucked out with getting this internship. The people I work with (all 3 of them) are just so nice and understanding. My boss has so much on her plate, and works insanely hard. I really respect it. The only problem is, she just doesn't have enough time to do everything. After all, there are only 24 hours in a day. So, this makes things a bit chaotic, and end up getting very last minute projects and tasks. It can be frustrating, but I completely understand and sympathize for her. For the amount of pressure on this woman's shoulders, she seems to be handling it better than I ever could.

In general, I do tons of powerpoint presentations. These powerpoints involve researching different companies that could partner with our magazines, figuring out which magazines have the best readership profiles to meet the companies' objectives and consumer audience, and creating possible co-sponsored events between the magazine and the company. Most interesting project so far: The other week, my boss asks if either me or my co-worker know how to make movies. I have a little bit of experience, so I said "uhhh, sort of." Apparently, my evident lack of confidence in answering wasn't hear by my boss. The next day, a Thursday, I end up at another office of my company near La Defense. There, they have a huge media department including a filming studio, expensive equipment, and awesome programs for editing. I ended up getting an extremely professional, extremely expensive video camera. Then, me and my co-worker went to the location where one of the magazines is made. We did all of these interviews and whatnot, me filming all the while. Everyone had the impression that I was somehow a professional and were asking me where to stand in regards to the lighting, this that and the third. We recorded about 40 minutes of film, ran back to the studio at the other building across town, uploaded the video to my computer and skidaddled back to our office. I then started editing. and editing. and editing. That night I stayed up until 2 in the morning editing. Mind you, the video had to be done by Monday, and I was supposed to be leaving for Strasbourg Friday night. To put it delicately, I worked like a mofo. I managed to cut 40 minutes of film to a 7 minute video, complete with transitions from clip to clip, subtitles, audio editing, and music clips. I have to say, for not really having done anything like this before, I am extremely proud of myself. Kudos to me! I'm just to technologically savvy and creative sometimes that I surprise myself hahaha

Well, more blogging to come soon. I know I've been saying that for months, but this time I mean it. I feel that if I don't chronicle my adventures now, then my memories may become lost in the increasingly forgetful abyss known as my brain.

Vous me manquez, mes amis!
Bisous