I’m way too exhausted to produce much of a blog post tonight, after a whirlwind day around Paris. Was extraordinaire, however! Today Sarah and I pretty much managed to accomplish everything we set out to do, which included moving her stuff to another hostel, seeing some pretty synagogues, climbing La Tour Eiffel, a partial visit of Notre Dame (more tomorrow), a very selective tour of the Louvre, a climb up the Arc de Triomphe and dinner on the Champs-Elysees encore. We were, however, disappointed that our dinner ended at 11:40 p.m., too late to stop by the nearby Monoprix (the French Target-esque store, but much MUCH more mesmerizing if that’s possible).

Sometime in the middle of the day today I learned that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, and honestly, at first I thought this was a joke. I mean, sure, the guy has accomplished a lot by becoming the first African American president and showing such a deep interest in the working class, but, come on. He hasn’t even done ANYTHING yet. What type of peace between people has he already achieved? Fine if you want to give him the award if that happens, but certainly not fine at this point. If anything, some of his current global policies are making the world an even more dangerous place, like all these leniencies with Iran. He’s putting Israel in an increasingly nerve-wracking positi0n, and if he maintains this completely pacifist position with Iran, Israel will be forced to take care of the world solo, as usual, meanwhile taking inevitable slack for doing everyone else’s dirty work as usual.

Sorry for the political rant when I’m supposed to be blogging about my trip, but this just upset me immensely.

Anyway, back to Paris.

You really have to be wary of pickpockets at the Eiffel Tower. While sitting in the park in front of the tower enjoying some nice baguette/mozzarella/tomato/basil sandwiches, Sarah and I were probably approached by about 10 different Arab women, fully cloaked in disheveled religious garb, asking us, “Do you speak English?” Gradually, we learned to pretend that we didn’t in fact speak English, because this question was a trap for vulnerable tourists. If you respond affirmatively, the women pull out note-cards with stories about their suffering and why you should give them money. And they’ll keep lurking around after you’ve made yourself totally clear that you’re not interested. Then there was a little boy who tried to trick us into taking a gold ring from him as some sort of distraction mechanism. Thank goodness we didn’t fall for it. I guess there’s crime in all cities, but you have to just be aware of the crime types specific to where you are in order to avoid them.

The climb up the Eiffel Tower was great though — we walked up as far as you could climb but then decided not to take the elevator to the tippy-top because it was extra money and a huge line. Views from even the lower platforms were absolutely beautiful, however, and perhaps even better later in the evening at Notre Dame. One ridiculous thing we saw — a mid-60s-year-old woman who decided it would be a good idea to climb the Eiffel Tower in designer stiletto heels, meanwhile wearing band-aids all over her clearly pained feet.  People are…well…special.

In all seriousness though, the people I have met through staying in these hostels really have been special in a good way — all of them are so smart and have such interesting stories and backgrounds. For example, my Paris roommates at the moment are a pair of Serbian sisters and one Japanese girl studying abroad in Sweden. This morning we talked about everything from Slobodan Milosevic/Serbian-Bosnian-Albanian conflicts to Japanese hair straightening products. : )

On that note, I think I’m going to head upstairs to shower and go to bed, especially since all three of my roommates are probably already sleeping (it’s after 1 a.m.), and I’m going to make enough accidental noise as it is.

Bonne nuit, Shabbat Shalom, Happy Simchat Torah, Chag Sameach.

ISRAEL IN TWO DAYS!!!