On the road again

Right after Purim (I mean right after--our flight leaves at 1:20 am on Shushan Purim) we're on the road again. And this time, I really could wait to be on the road again. Our detination?

Mexico City via Paris.

No freedom on this trip: the conference organizers have warned the vendors that we must stay in the hotel, stay with the group, and stay quiet, lest we be kidnapped and held for ransom. Gee, what fun. At least we signed up for a tour or three with the rest of the convention.

And Paris. Paris is beginning to scare me. I can read Spanish (though my spoken Spanish is pidgeon at best, and most people speak too fast for me to understand) but French--I can read it, but can't understand or speak a word. OK, so The Spouse can say "I don't speak French" with a great accent (he did study French for 7 years back in the Stone Age), but still. I'm hoping, since we will only leave the 9th district to go to sickeningly touristy places, that we can get by with his semi-French and our English, Hebrew, and Yiddish.

But our French firneds are really scaring us about how we act while there. We're used to living out loud as Jews, and, just for an example, our neighbor who's Parisian and who works in Israel for the French Embassy has told us that it is illegal for me to wear my headscarves and for The Spouse to wear his kippah in public. Say what? Hats are OK, but since we wear them for religious reasons...

So I went through my old hats and found an old beret I haven't worn for ages, still in decent shape. And I have enough of the pink ribbon yarn I used for my tank top to double up in an Odessa. But still. If it weren't that every flight to Europe from Mexico City goes through Paris, and that as is we land in Paris at 2:30 on a Friday afternoon--bleah. So not looking forward to this trip, despite all the knitting I'm getting to do in preparation.