In Paris, Thinking of Ithaca

Hello cool people!

It’s been a very quiet week for me, here in the booming metropolis of Paris.  I arrived at the d’Artagnan hostel late on Monday night, after a fairly uneventful train ride from Florence, via Zürich, during which Henry James (and others) kept me entertained.

Since then, I have been procrastinating, and, to be fair, not really getting much done.  I’ve written a little bit more than eleven pages of the thesis that I’m required to submit to the Einaudi Center as the result of my research.  I’ve also met my friend Margo, who I met on Birthright, whose family just moved to Paris.  Other than that, and a quick trip to Victor Hugo’s house, I haven’t accomplished much, either in the way of work or pleasure.  Over the next few days, I’m planning to visit the royal chateau of Fontainbleau, and, if possible, the chateau of Vaux-le-Vicompte (the latter is difficult to access).  I’d also like to try to see Bruno at least once before I return overseas.  Other than that, I don’t really have any concrete plans for people or places on this side of the Atlantic.  That’s why I’m itching to get home, because I have so many commitments there!  I’m worried that the semester will begin without my having had enough time to spend time with my parents and my friends in Ithaca, or without my having had enough time to prepare for the dozens of commitments I have (studying for the GRE, getting back in shape after all of my lack of exercise in Europe and Israel, planning High Holidays, picking blueberries with my Mother, sitting down and talking to my Father, translating a French book for a friend of mine, de-squirreling the CJL, finishing certain books, etc.).  I’m living in a hostel room with half-a-dozen other men, at least one of whom is sleeping in the room, whenever I either leave or return, no matter what the time.  I’m living out of my suitcase, have no cooking facilities or even a refrigerator, and have no privacy.  My best workplace, the Mémorial de la Shoah, doesn’t have Wi-Fi, and doesn’t even allow me to drink from my water bottle while I work.  There’s no atmosphere that isn’t tense, where I can relax and unwind.  That being said, if one of you is willing to Skype, please let me know!  There’s a large enough lobby in the hostel such that our conversation won’t necessarily be overheard, especially if the time you choose is late in the evening.

So that’s where I am right now, and why I haven’t updated my blog recently.

Shabbat Shalom!

~JD

“I was by the strangest of chances wondering how I should meet him when the revolution unmistakably occurred.  I call it a revolution because I now see how, with the word he spoke, the curtain rose on the last act of my dreadful drama, and the catastrophe precipitated.  ‘Look here, my dear, you know,’ he charmingly said, ‘when in the world, please, am I going back to school?’” (Henry James, The Turn of the Screw, ch. XIV).