Jonah's girlfriend

We really appreciate all the phone calls to see if we are okay. We are fine. However, relative to the suburb riots which felt very far away, these recent demonstrations have been quite close to home. And, I seem to have an uncanny knack for finding myself in the middle of them. Yesterday, Ella was home sick with a cold, but Jonah went to school. Late in the afternoon, I was looking to get my mind off of Papa's surgery (he fell and broke his hip. The surgery went well and he's now on the long road to recovery again). So, I volunteered to go pick up Jonah, forgetting that the demonstration's ending point (Republique) was in between our home and the creche. I got on the train by home which was more crowded than usual because of the strike, but not terrible. As we got closer to Republique, the train got more and more crowded to the point where no more people could fit into the car I was in. The train stopped at Republique and another 20 people tried to cram into the car. The crowd was rowdy and it felt unsafe. So, I got off the train thinking I would walk up a couple of blocks to a different metro line, but forgetting that once again, that would put me right in the middle of the demonstration. There was a huge crowd at Republique, lines of students linking arms that I needed to go around (I'm not sure what the linking arms was all about, but it wasn't really the time to stop and ask), and plenty of police. It wasn't violent, but it was the last place in Paris I wanted to be just then. So, I got out of there as quickly as I could, and walked up to the Gare de L'est, to the nearly empty #4 train. Next Tuesday (the next anticipated social action day), I think Jonah will be staying home from school!

When I got to Jonah's creche though, I was greeted with the happy news that he has a girlfriend. Much to the apparent disappointment of the other girls in the creche who vie for his attention, Jonah has paired up with Louise. She is Cendrellion (Cinderella) and he is the prince. They play together, eat lunch together, and generally love each other. Today Jonah was invited to "Cinderella's castle" (a.k.a. Louise's house) for a weekend playdate. Abe asked Jonah what he likes about Louise. Jonah said, "I just love her. She gives me kisses and hugs. She is the princess and I am the prince." If that's not true love, I don't know what is.

By the way, we have read many news sources which have used the demonstrations to paint a portrait of France as a lazy and inefficient country. Although the government employee system clearly has its quirks, we can't help but marvel. Last night around 11:30 pm we went on line and bought some train tickets for an upcoming trip. This morning, when I left the apartment at 9 am, the tickets were waiting for us in our mailbox. Now that is what I call an efficient operation!