Lecture and Reading

Wednesday, with Jonah in school (sorry, Jonah), Abe, Ella, and I went to the science museum. They have a separate area (the Cite d'enfants) which is especially geared toward young children, so we spent a good part of the morning there. Ella was particularly interested in an exhibit on how wheat becomes bread and an exhibit on mirrors. She loved the kids' construction site. In the afternoon, I had my baking class (the theme of which was evidently pastries you can make with pork - not our best class, in my opinion) while Abe and Ella continued their weekly tradition of swimming.

Thursday morning, Abe had his hair cut at the Jean Louis Deforge Ecole de Coiffure (on the ground floor of our building). The students there fussed over him, flirted with him, and gave him an outstanding haircut. Then, usually on Thursday evenings, Abe goes to his French class. But this Thursday, he was at the Pavillon de l'Arsenal (the Paris architecture and design center) and they were advertising a lecture that evening by Bernard Tschumi (the architect who designed, among other things, the architectural follies at the Parc de la Villette). Figuring that a lecture in French was as good as a French class, he decided to go, which turned out to be a great choice. He was able to understand most of the talk (we've often wished that all conversations were accompanied by power point slides as that helps a lot), and was very energized by both the content of the talk and the enthusiasm of the 500 or so architects in attendance.

Ella (who typically loves school) has become a bit bored and annoyed because all they ever do these days is Christmas. I wouldn't be surprised if even the kids who do celebrate Christmas are getting a little tired of it - it's kind of over the top. Anyway, about 3 weeks ago, the teacher was recruiting parents to come in and read Christmas stories to the children. Ella felt very strongly that I should sign up to read a Chanukah story. I was a bit reluctant given that the request was for Christmas stories and given that 5 year olds can be tough critics of someone who doesn't speak the language well. But, then I thought about how Ella goes to school every days and faces the fact that it's all in French (and lately all about Christmas) and I figured I could be brave for 15 minutes one morning and give it a try. I asked the teacher how she would feel about this idea and she very sportingly said "why not?" The teacher, though limited in experience with people from other backgrounds, is very open and accepting, which I appreciated. My morning to read was on Friday. We had scoured the city looking for a Chanukah book in French and discovered that they are very hard to find. We finally found one little board book (less a story than an introduction to the symbols of the holiday) that would have to do. So, I brought the book along with a menorah, some dreidels, and some gelt. The kids were adorable and very interested in my book (and not one of them made fun of my French - at least not to my face). I explained how in December when a lot of people celebrate Christmas, some people celebrate other things. They liked the story and loved looking at the objects. The teacher was very funny. In her efforts to be accepting, she kept making analogies between Chanukah symbols and Christmas ones. So, when I told about the candles she said," Oh that's just like advent candles," and when I told about the gelt she said it was just like some Christmas symbol of money falling from the sky (or something along those lines). After the story she was emphasizing the idea of people celebrating all different things, and to illustrate she gave the example that in Spain they celebrate the Feast of the Three Kings. So, limited world view, but her heart was in the right place and I appreciated that. I left the dreidels for the kids to try spinning during the day, which Ella reported they really liked. After I finished, their class tradition is to sing a song to thank someone for coming in to their class. They couldn't agree which song to sing, so I was serenaded with 2 songs that they have been practicing for their Christmas chorale. It was really sweet, and especially fun to see Ella seeming right at home among her classmates.

Today, the sun was shining. It's not too cold here in the winter, but it has been overcast a lot lately so it was a nice change to see the sun. We met Stuart and Jane and their kids for lunch in the Latin quarter and to play in the Jardin de Luxemborg. By chance we ran into our other Paris friends (Ella's friend Helena and her family) so we all went to see the marionette show together (A wonderful little show complete with pirates, princesses, buried treasure, and a monkey dance routine). We were barely able to drag Ella away from her friends after a mug of hot chocolate to top off the afternoon.