tout le monde fume. i miss tap water.

shabbat was really nice. the family i stayed with was very welcoming, although the dad was a bit strange. apparently everyone needs to wash their hands when they come in the house from outside. weeeeeird. also, he seems to be somewhat strict--he told me he didn't let his daughters pierce their ears. i'm pretty sure his opinion of me was majorly affected by my nose ring. otherwise, i ate well, slept well, felt very comfortable. in shul i met a very nice french girl named ora who i'll hang out with a bit, et avec qui je peux pratiquer mon français. today she took me for a walk around the bois de boulogne, which is supposedly like the french central park. we didn't get too far because i was wearing rather uncomfortable shoes, but i guess i saw the resemblence. you can't really compare much to central park, though. i also met jessie's weirdass cousin who she's talked about before. it's a small world. especially when it comes to the semites.

i'm learning that a lot of the young jews here don't see a future for themselves here--they move to israel, canada, or america.