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France 1999-The Trip of a Lifetime
A Daily Journal of a Week in the Overseas
Life of the Smalrus
4/17
Bonjour! It's been the best trip ever here in Paris. Right now,
I'm here on our bus heading down Rue Dupleix as we embark on our
next stop: Tours. But before I leave, I must share the details of
our extraordinary journey thus far.
"Yesterday" (who knows time? For 36 hrs straight
travel, you lost concept of it), we did a whole boatload of
stuff. We started out at SWHS, leaving after 3rd period for Logan
Int'l Airport. Got there after making a stop at Burger King. Took
the plane to JFK. I sat next to some guy and his wife who were
from central Mass but went to Torrington high school. He taught
in a H.S. and turns out, he liked Star Trek so he let me read the
magazine he bought. From there we were at JFK. Waited there for
almost 3 hrs. Oh yeah, at Logan, I set off the metal detector
twice, so they wanded me and sent me on my way. New York was
weird. Birds are flying around in the airport. So after the long
wait, we finally boarded out plane and I saw this girl from my
SAT class (I believe. I dunno. I'm not even sure of her name.)
The plane ride itself was awesome. We got going, OK...I figured
it would be just another old plane ride for 7 hrs. WRONG! There
were several Lubavitchers on board, which I thought was ok. Then
around 6:30ish, they started moving around the plane, looking for
people to have a minyan. What was I gonna do? They're Jewish, I'm
Jewish. I have no reason not to daven, except that I'm on a plane
with everyone else non-Jewish, so...I did it. He pulled me over
to lay tefillin, which I did on the plane over the Atlantic. Best
spiritual experience I've ever had in my life. The only thing I
worried about was if they would be upset at me for not doing
everything like them, but when I brought up later that I was only
conservative, he really seemed to understand that it didn't
matter, that we all believe in G-d and the coming of moschiach
(they tended to express that to everyone on the plane.) During
the meal, one guy came up to me and offered me a kosher meal and
I was surprised that he was okay with the fact that I said no. I
davened later with them again. It turns out that they were from
all over, Colombia, S.A., Australia, NY, New Haven...(Mr. McKenna
claims they were going to Paris to study with one of the
Rebbetzin.) One of them was so happy that he had a prayerbook
from the Rebbe himself with the Rebbe's picture, that he had to
show me. He was 17 and claimed his parents couldn't have
children, but were blessed by the Rebbe and he was born. Very
interesting. The stewardess was nasty. "Who prays this late
at night? 5 minutes turns into 20 min," She says. I felt
real bad because she probably doesn't even know what's going on
and why they do it.
I slept while they played "Enemy of the State." Woke up
2 hrs later. Still flying. Looked out the window. Took a couple
of hrs for the sun to come up but it did. We could see the clouds
over England. I wrote a poem about it (see poem). At around 8am
local time (+6hrs) we landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport in
Paris. I got off and in the customs line, one of the Lubavitchers
had me lay tefillin. He was always smiling, saying he was
"thrilled to see [your] courage to do something like this in
an airport." I really didn't mind, but rather was
"spiritually exhilarated." I didn't mind except that I
had a hard time figuring out how to explain everything we were
doing to everyone else who asked me.
After flawlessly passing through customs, we waited for our bus
while Amberly had dealt with the teachers because her backpack
w/money, etc was stolen. Rather boring and Bethanne was on the
floor "sick" the whole time. We saw a big 767 pass
taxiing while loading our stuff on the bus. The busses here are
big to accommodate luggage, etc. Andrew and I rode first seat,
which was scary because there is no front, just straight down.
The French drive like crazies. Instead of the car trying to avoid
you, it's you trying to avoid the car. We rode a while, took pix
of traffic signs and finally arrived at our 2 star hotel, Dupleix
Suffern. Really bad rooms: 2 cots on a floor, balcony, bathroom
w/no shower curtain. Really bad with a lock that would only go if
you lifted the key while turning it 3 times.
We then broke up into groups w/teachers to get a "tour"
of Paris. Next week, Jon, Mr. McKenna, and I are gonna run there.
Sites we saw: Notre Dame de Paris, the Egyptian obelisk, the
Louvre, and Jardin des Tuileries, Pompidou Centre, and fountains.
Went to lunch w/Andrew at Papa Pinos at Les Halles. It was really
interesting because it was the first time we had to speak French
to real people. (mocking french) Aha ha ha. After rehearsing how
to say "Can I I have my check, please" (Est-ce que nous
avons l'addition, s'il vous plait) for 10 minutes, 1/2 of the
restaurant applauded for me. You know, you can get anyone in a
good mood, just by drawing them. The old man next to us looked
grumpy, but he was rather nice when we showed him the picture.
 The fountain outside the Pompidou
Centre.
Things I
learned about France: If you want to use the public bathrooms,
it's gonna cost you. 2 Francs that is. Dogs eat anywhere, and go
anywhere and everywhere. You cannot escape sex in this country.
Everyone macks it on the streets in broad daylight. Sex shops
have pix of 1/2 naked people (the half you wouldn't expect)
outside of all shops; sex calendars are sold at almost every
street corner. All in broad daylight. We haven't even gotten to
the hookers yet. But I didn't see them. The metro is a must.
Takes you all over the city. Rather confusing, but fun to take.
Came back to the hotel and chilled for 2 hrs. I took a 10 min
power nap, which would allow me to be wired all night. We then
went out to dinner in groups, us w/Mr. and Mrs. Gorman (who don't
appear to know Paris well). Headed up into the Latin Quarter for
dinner at Rabelais Odéon. Great food. I had a croque madam
(bread, ham, bread, mozz. cheese, and egg), some original French
onion soup (burnt cheese), and mint soda (hmmmmm.......minty).
Great food except for the burnt cheese. I wanted to go up to the
Eiffel Tower before it closed but everyone was passing out in the
metro station.
Go back to the hotel and the Eiffel Tower says it will close at
11. Jon and I go to the top ourselves and it closes at 12. So we
had fun our first night out alone. The stairs were closed on the
first floor but Jon insisted on taking them from 2nd to 1st
floor. I was screaming at Jon the whole way down cause we were so
late. So we waited 15 min for the elevator to come get us. Great
view of all the major monuments at night. Come back around 11:50
(23h50) after getting lost on our way home. I almost got shot by
some man with a laser pointer and he started laughing. All in all
the 36 hrs w/ 2h10min of sleep was well over worth it.
P.S. Another thing I noticed was the disagreement ofer the
NATO-Kosovo conflict. NATO declared war while we were at our
hotel. On many of the street corner buildings and in side
streets, there are paintings saying, "La mort de
Clinton," "OTAN=IIIeme Reich," "Fuck off
America," etc...Very scary, especially when you run into
student protesters like the ones in Odéon who were protesting
for rights for illegal immigrants. Strange because France is a
member of NATO.
 
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