adam gopnik, why did you have to be smart?

this weekend i finally hit the 100th page of adam gopnik's paris to the moon. now i've officially realized whatever i write on this blog will never be as observant or as subtly written as what he has to say. oh well, at least it's shorter.

anti-semitism in france: i was told to watch out for it before i left. my mom sent me article after threatening article about the hardships of being a jew in france; my dad made me change my t-shirt which featured a bit of hebrew writing before i got on the airplane. it's true that guys can't really walk around in kippot and showing you're jewish outright is probably not wise, but i have to say i got an entirely different impression of things thanks to the american media. and the jewish media at that.

even some guy i talked to when i went away on that weekend told me that anti-semitism here isn't all it's hyped up to be. i guess i'd conjured up an image of 1930s poland where not only was it impossible to be jewish, but nothing jewish-related was appreciated or discussed by the general public. maybe that's why i was so shocked that a production of fiddler on the roof was being advertised more than broken flowers (and we know that the french do love and take very seriously their cinema) in every metro station. tourists and non-jewish locals patron the ever-popular l'as du falafel, the "lenny kravitz reccomended" falafel joint in the marais.

maybe things are calmer here now, which is what i've heard. and it's probably not as simplistic as i've made it all out to be. but i'm here to make my own damned observations, true or untrue, observant or not. so screw you adam gopnik.