Bois de Boulonge

Yesterday was a work day. In the morning, I went to INSERM and met with the third of my collaborators, a graduate student working on her doctorate there. She helped me get set up with my computer account (to access data, stats software, etc), my INSERM email account, and my office (which I share with a woman who is retired, so hardly ever there). The computer system there is UNIX based and they use SAS, which is exactly the system I used at UVa in graduate school. I'm pretty rusty on it, but hopefully it will come back to me with a little practice. I also ate lunch with several of the younger people who work there. I was able to understand whatever they said directly to me, but when they started talking among themselves, I barely managed to follow the gist. Hopefully, that too will come with practice.

In the evening, Abe had another of his marathon conference call meetings with the synagogue building committee. Despite a few crazy suggestions (it's hard to read non-verbal cues over the phone, but Abe doesn't think the rabbi was kidding when he insisted on a computer monitor in the sanctuary to list the Yarzheit names), it's coming along well.

Today, by contrast, was a day of fun. It was a beautiful sunny day so we took the metro to the Bois de Boulonge. We spent most of the day at the Jardin d'Acclimatation which is part Central Park Zoo, part Coney Island, and part something uniquely French. We went quickly through the pay-as-you-go amusement parks ride area, and headed for some of the more interesting attractions. We saw an extraordinary aviary with species of colorful birds none of us had ever seen before. The kids enjoyed the kitchen garden area, where they could see and touch all kinds of fruits and vegetables growing. There were all kinds of animals: grizzly bears, llamas, enormous rabbits, pigs, sheep and goats to whom the children fed leaves (either the goats really like leaves or they really like children, because they were quite obliging about eating as many leaves as the children could offer). There was a huge playground just for the little kids, and another even bigger for the big kids - incredible climbing structures, play houses, see-saws, and for the first time since we got to Paris, swings. A highlight of the afternoon was that Ella got to see her first Guignol puppet show. Although she had only a slight idea of what was going on, she seemed to enjoy it. I'm sure by the end of the year, she'll be boo-ing the villan and cheering the hero along with the hundreds of other children crammed into the marionette theater.

We ended the day by picking up take out Chinese food on the way home from the Metro stop, with plans to get a little work done and study French once the kids go to bed.