No One Said Fasting Was Easy...Now Try it in Paris

What a whirlwind weekend! Luckily, Kate's family friends know a Jewish family in Paris right near the synagogue we chose for Rosh Hashanah, so they invited us for dinner before Kol Nidre! It was so nice to be with a family for the holiday - and a nice one at that. They live in a gorgeous apartment, modernly decorated with impecable taste. The praise continues...the food was fabulous. It's been a while since I've had a real home cooked meal so the Tunisian couscous with chicken, pumpkin, and other vegetables to go with the homemade challah was a real treat.

The service for Kol Nidre was great. At first, I was a little turned off aesthetically (temple at home is so pretty) but quickly realized that the quality of the service was exactly what I wanted. The best part, however, was that I felt trilingual! The service very quickly jumped from Hebrew to English to French and back again and I hardly noticed! Interesting fact: Kehilat Gesher, (the temple) is one of the only non-Orthodox synagogues in Paris.

Since Kate and I couldn't eat or drink Friday night, we opted to not hang out with everyone and go to see a French movie. DISCLAIMER: If the synopsis says comédie in French, its not a comedy - its a drama. We say "Ces Amours-La," a story following the lives of the one main woman and her various lovers during the German occupation of France during the Holocaust, and their lives in present day. Truly a beautiful film (even if it wasn't funny).

Saturday morning was spent at services again (extra long because of Shabbat) and I played my favorite game (Jewish geography) with one of the woman working there. Her daughter just started college at Tufts so I made sure to name-drop for her! The Neuthalers were in Paris this weekend so we met up with them after services. Jake, an old friend from high school, is studying abroad here for the semester too, but his classes don't start until October 1. His family came over with him to drop his stuff off and are now traveling around France. For Saturday however, Abbi, Paul, and Jake took Kate and I to see Sacre Coeur and the rest of Montmartre! They also took us for a delicious dinner to break fast - couldn't have been nicer! Kate and I kidnapped Jake after dinner and we all went to one of my friends' apartments. She also had a break fast for us and had bought bagels, lox, wine, chocolate, cheese, everything! Mom, no one beats your break fast but I was absolutely well-endowed in the food department! Fasting was exhausting so we never made it to my other friends house. Instead, several of us from the break fast went to see the Eiffel Tower light show at night! It was so sparkly and magical - almost surreal! I don't think I even blinked for several seconds!!!

Sunday means Marais! Its the only part of Paris thats not closed on Sunday, especially this sunday, because everything there was closed for Yom Kippur. A big brunch with lots of friends, shopping, gallery hopping, and people watching in Louis XIII's park later, and I was wiped. It must've been all the Jewish bakery trips and rugelah that did me in. They have real Israeli-style rugelah here! And believe me...it does not disappoint! Highlight of the afternoon? My friends laughing as I trapped myself into lecturing on Sukkot. All the Jews came out on the street to try and sell the lula and etrog to passerbys for Shabbat. And there I was. Translating for the people on the street, and then having to explain what Sukkot is (not a well-known holiday I guess). Last night I started the Cloisters puzzle! Unfortunately for my housemate who was sitting by me, I ended up in full-on puzzle mode (you know how obsessive I get) and became entirely absorbed. I did the whole border! Probably not the best choice of activity to start the night before classes begin. Woops. On the upside, I deserved to do whatever I wanted to make up for the extreme disappointment of having discovered a bad crepe earlier in the day. That's right. a BAD crepe. Doughy, cold, I didn't know that was legal here!

I wanted to blog yesterday about the weekend, but I got tied up uploading many pictures onto facebook and a lengthy Pearson-family skype session (minus Melvin - mom still won't let him on the carpeting!)

Today was my first day of classes! But perhaps I'll write more on that in a little bit. Besides that fact that the topic is unrelated to this post, right now, I am too excited about and distracted by my new activity to tell you about it; I'll explain why later - if you promise not to mock my extremely cool (Sabrina will call it nerdy) activity!

Lots of love and hope everyone had an easy fast, and a delicious break (even if you didn't get to break with the wonders of French cuisine)!