Brief report from Paris

Hello friends,

Melina is off in the wilds of Pennsylvania and out of touch, while I am sitting by the window in my fourth-floor walkup (they call it the third floor here so it won't seem like so many stairs) blogging courtesy of the JOHNSON unsecured wi-fi connection. Whe JOHNSON is not home, we don't have internet. Thank you, JOHNSON. If I meet you, I will give you chocolate.

The Medem library, where I just finished the first week of my three-week program, is located off a tiny alleyway and has no windows. The classrooms are absolutely packed with students - there are twenty in my class, in a room which would fit twelve comfortably. The students are from so many countries - France, Italy, Romania, Byelorussia, Germany, Poland, New Zealand and the US at least - that, in fact, Yiddish is the lingua franca. Our teachers are wonderful, though they are in such a hurry to cram our heads with as much as possible that they are writing on the white board with one hand as they erase with the other. When we pop out of our overcrowded classrooms at 12:45 our brains are bursting.

Right across the street is a hotel with no curtains on the windows - all bathing, smoking, etc takes place Rear-Window style.

When I get home I'll post my pictures and the stories that go with them. Today I bought a painting!

Zayt gezunt -