When in Paris, do as the Parisians do

These past couple of weeks have been nothing short of a long string of cultural experiences. If I'd ever at any point expressed concern regarding the lack of culture I'd be exposed to here, it has certainly been annulled, and here's why:

Markets:
Jordyn and I have begun to explore the infamous market scene in Paris. We've only just started, but last Friday marked the second time we went to the Oberkampf market to observe, participate, and of course buy our weekly dose of fresh fruits, produce, cheese, you name it. We're finally starting to get the hang of how this whole market thing works--who to avoid, who gives out samples, who will make fun of your accent, who is unjustifiably overpriced, whose produce is the tastiest, who will trick you into buying really smelly cheese...all that good stuff. I find that simply walking through and observing the market is an entirely different experience than actually participating in the madness. It's definitely one of the best things you can do to to experience life as a local here.

Macarons:
In case you haven't caught on by now, Jordyn and I love food. Like, probably a little too much. It's one of those things where we know we shouldn't be saying yes to every offer, but the word no doesn't seem to exist when food is involved. It's kind of like: "How many kilos of cheese do you want in your crepe?" Yes. "Do you want extra sugar in your Super Large American Mocha Latte?" Obviously. "Do you want some more butter on your butter?" Why not. So when we were offered the chance to attend a macaron making workshop, no doubt we answered yes before the question was even finished being asked...

Lucky for us (not), the workshop was taught in Super Speedy French. So instead of expending our energy trying to understand what on earth was being said, Jordyn and I were more concentrated on sneaking more spoonfuls of the pistachio, and/or Speculoos, and/or Nutella, and/or chocolate filling into our gluttonous American mouths. Well worth it, folks. We discovered that while making macarons is fun, it's also time consuming, complicated, loud, exhausting, and kind of insane, and that we'd much rather just be lazy and buy some from a Patisserie whenever we damn well please. In any case, it was an absolutely fantastic and culturally enriching experience, not to mention delicious :)

Me time:
I'm happy to say that I've really been taking advantage of my surroundings and taking every chance I get to discover the hidden treasures of Paris, just me, myself and iPod. And that could mean a multitude of things: Taking the metro to a random stop and exploring the area, finding a concentrated area of thrift shops and hopping from one to another, walking around aimlessly until I have no idea where I am or how I ended up there, people watching along the canal, spontaneously grabbing a cup of coffee at a cafe... It's really a peaceful experience, exploring Paris on my own. There's so much to see, so much to discover. I find that when I go out and do these things on my own, I'm able to experience Paris in its purest form. 

Parisian Parties:
So a while back, I made a post expressing my concern that I was clearly partying with the wrong people in Paris, because I'm usually fast asleep by the time my host parents come home from their soirees on the weekends... Well it just so happened that my host mom, Ariane, and her friend Fatma threw a joint birthday party here the other night, and I sure as hell wasn't gonna miss that. Obviously I had no idea what to expect going into this. All I knew was that there were going to be a bunch of middle aged Parisians in a room with music and wine. Little did I know, I was going to be attending a rager until 5:00 AM.......... Everyone was drinking, everyone was dancing. I met some really interesting people, too. Plus there was this one lady on I don't even know what, but she was hardcore interpretive dancing the entire night. Oh, and parsley. She was eating parsley... Anyway, at one point my host dad, Yves, walks in the front door with a suitcase he'd found on the side of the road (like what?) and we open it up to discover a bunch of random costumes. So naturally, everyone grabs something, puts on their respective piece of garment, and continues going about their night. Meanwhile, my friends and I are exhausted and the rest of the crowd is still partying hard like you wouldn't believe. Especially parsley lady. So 4:30 AM rolls around, Bob Marley is blasting, and coffee is starting to be served. Yes, coffee...at the end of the party...at 4:30 AM. I'm telling you, it was the most bizarre experience, and I loved every second of it!!! It was absolutely fantastic.

Ariane and Fatma blowing out their candles :)

(And on a more touching note, Fatma told me that she's going to be really sad when I leave because I'm like a sister to her. Tears. I had tears. <3)

Passover in Paris:
Lastly, I had the chance to attend Passover services and a seder here. Ariane is technically Jewish, but she doesn't practice, however she introduced me to Martine, a cousin of hers at the party who does practice. They extended the offer to have me join Martine and her family at services and their friends' seder. Without hesitation, I accepted. It was so nice of Ariane to think of me, and such a kind gesture of the two of them to arrange something for me.

So, come Monday, I met Martine's 19 year old daughter, Charlotte, near my school and we took the metro to get to their synagogue. It was nothing like the services I'm used to attending at home, but at the same time it was comforting just to be in the presence of other Jews. I recognized some of the melodies, and then there were others that I'd never heard of before. And it was funny to hear Hebrew being spoken with a French accent. The main difference I noticed, however, was the uniformity in the songs and in the readings. Back home, when the congregation reads texts aloud, everyone reads at the same pace, pauses at the same time, and speaks with the same intonations. Here, however, it was almost like a free-for-all. It threw me off at first, but then I began to appreciate it in the sense that it allowed everyone to have their own moment with the prayers and not worry about the pace at which they should speak it. I think both ways are meaningful, it just made it slightly more difficult to follow... Especially considering that it wasn't even in English to begin with. Having a prayer book written in only French and Hebrew was certainly a challenge. I did, however, understand the Rabbi's sermon, surprisingly. He was speaking of the 4 questions we ask during Passover, and why we ask them. But he explained that the importance is not that we answer the questions, but that we continue to ask them year after year. I liked everything he had to say, and overall I really enjoyed the service.

After the service was over, Martine drove Charlotte and myself to their friends' place just outside of Paris where the seder took place. Everyone was very nice and welcomed me with open arms. And as it turns out there were at least 7 other people my age there, so I had plenty of people to talk to. It was very interesting to participate in a seder that is not my family's, and not to mention one that is Parisian. Like my family's seder, it was very playful, and there were a million different things going on at once, but at the same time the readings were still getting read, rituals were still being done, and fun was certainly being had.

I'm so grateful to have been given this opportunity--it was a really neat experience :)

Et voila. There you have some culturally enriching events I've been partaking in lately. You know what they say, "When in Rome Paris, do as the Parisians do". And so it was decreed...

And tomorrow my parents will be here!!! :')

À bientôt, mes amis
Bis xo