Good morning!

Well, it's almost 7:30 in the morning here in Paris. I am very well rested from the Sabbath yesterday, and feeling much better. I am sorry for my last blog :*( sometimes I just get slightly selfish, haha.

I started reading "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" for English. I love it already! I love the stuff about Jews in there too. it's so funny! I loved Brooklyn, and my grandmother's family live in the Jewish part and they own a delicatessen and it's kind of neat to step into the book and think about what it was like for my ancestors when they rode to America and settled there in the Jewish part of the town.

My great-great grandfather, David, sailed to America in 1895, with his beautiful young bride, Anna. They had an infant and Anna was pregnant when they made the journey. They got to Ellis Island and then later went to the part of Brooklyn where all the other poor Jewish families lived. David worked hard to make ends meet for his young family, working in a butcher shop. Anna made and sold Jewish rye bread and later on when the two were more financially stable they opened their own delicatessen.

Their middle son, Gregory, penny pinched and hunted for junk just like the kids in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" do. While his siblings spent their pennies and nickels on candy and toys, Gregory saved up his, and studied hard in school and was the only one out of the six children to go past sixth grade. His schooling was cut short though, when at the age of 17 he went overseas to fight in World War I. While he was there he was shot. His nurse was a beautiful Iranian Jewish woman who had done the Aliyah (ascent to Israel) and to escape more oppression went to France. Her fake French name was Emmanuelle, but her real name was Leila. The two fell in love as Gregory recovered, and Gregory took her back to Brooklyn to marry her.

Leila and Gregory had seven children later in their marriage, Louie, Effie, Willie, Jenny, Hattie, Freddie, and Wendy. Louie, the oldest, fought in World War II, and never came home. Effie was a nurse and traveled all around Europe, and when she came home to Brooklyn and recounted what she saw, all of her younger siblings were fascinated, especially Wendy, who was just a little girl when her older sister told her stories. When Wendy was eighteen she was able to use all of her saved up money and buy a plane ticket to Europe. The year was 1960. When she came back from Europe she planned on moving back in with her sister Hattie in Pennsylvania where she had been staying earlier and going to university. During that time her schooling would probably be interrupted by her mother, as she was constantly finding nice Jewish men for Wendy to marry, and Wendy was okay with that. She spent her two weeks traveling around, until she only had enough money left for a plane ride back home. She was in Paris her last day, sitting outside a café. A young man walked past her, made eye contact and fell in love at first sight. Needless to say, Wendy called up her parents and told them that she wouldn't be coming home that day, that they should come over from Brooklyn and see their youngest get married at a Parisian temple. Leila and Gregory were distraught, as their daughter was supposed to marry a local man, instead Wendy chose to marry a Frenchman she had just met days earlier, and this meant that Wendy would be so far away from home. Wendy was sad too, because although she loved Paris, Brooklyn would always be where her heart was.

Thierry and Wendy had four children. Their youngest was a boy named Armand. Armand as a teenager worked at a local Jewish bakery. The owners of it had a beautiful daughter named Mathilde. Armand and Mathilde were smittten with each other and fell in love. Cosette and Léon were excited for this marriage, as Mathilde was their only daughter and they had always wanted a son as well. They wished for Armand and Mathilde to wait though, as the two were only 18 and Cosette believed that the marriage could not last. Armand had to explain to them though that his own parents were 18 and only knew each other for a day, and they were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary that year. Armand and Mathilde had a beautiful big wedding in the same synagogue that Wendy and Thierry had gotten married in. Two years after their young marriage, Mathilde got pregnant and gave birth to an AMAZINGGGGG little girl (hehe) that little girl is going to get married to a New Zealand boy she met when she was twelve. and so the cycle continues.

I think it's so amazing how by a few moves the course of so many lives were changed. If David and Anna didn't leave Russia, I would still be there. Depending on the way you look at it, if Leila hadn't abandoned her life in Iran to find a better one in Europe, I would still be in Iran (which is not the best place to be right now.) If my grandfather Gregory hadn't gotten shot in the leg, I would never have had a drop of Iranian blood in me. If Wendy hadn't gone on that two week European exploration, I would be a Brooklyn girl. It's a strange thought. Even though I'm completely a Parisian girl, I know that there is some Brooklyn fire running through my veins ;)

The end. i hope you enjoyed ;)

RESOLUTIONS FOR 2010
-keep a positive attitude at all times!
-try to become fluent in Italian
-eat less sweets and more healthy foods
-become a better chef
-spend lots of time with family
-maintain weight around 93 lb

have a great new year!

-Amélie