I was really surprised when the nice glass pyramid in the middle of the square by the Louvre was actually the place where we had to go into the museum. There's an entire room underneath- who would have thought? Tickets at the Louvre are free for students. I have this great student ID from AFS that proves I actually am a student, and it's very useful for things like getting into museums. I left it at the hotel. I did manage to get in anyway though, Esmee had an extra school ID, and the people at the entrance didn't look carefully enough to notice that there were two Esmee's with the same birthday.
Walking through the Louvre there's absolutely no way of seeing everything. You can't see the whole museum, but you can't see a whole section either, or a whole room, you can hardly even look at one painting for long enough. The rooms I most remember walking through are the Spanish, Greek, and Egyptian rooms. Then of course there was the room with Mona Lisa, and we also walked through a few rooms with Dutch art. A lot of the Spanish art had to do with pictures and sculptures of Jesus on the cross, a lot of them which were super gruesome, but still interesting. The Greek art was all white marble statues of men and women without very many clothes on. And the Egyptian rooms were a lot of hieroglyphics, and smaller statues. Before I came to the Netherlands, I never would have recognized the Dutch art for Dutch art, but now that I've been here for a while, I could easily recognize that the paintings were Dutch. There were lots of sailboats, sea, flowers, sheep, and cows. Just like in real life!
The Mona Lisa was a bit anticlimactic. There was a huge room, and then the Mona Lisa was hanging on this really big wall, with a glass box around it. There was a rope in front of the painting (which, let me just add, is actually pretty tiny), and then behind the rope there were probably 70 tourists standing, all taking pictures. I'll admit it, I did join take a picture, because I figured I have to prove I'd actually seen it, but I felt incredibly cliche doing it. It is a neat painting, because it actually is true that her eyes follow you wherever you go. I just wouldn't say seeing the Mona Lisa changed my life or anything.
We were done at the Louvre fairly early in the afternoon, but everyone was tired from walking through the museum all day, so we went back to the apartment for a little bit. Almost everyone wanted to stay there for the rest of the day except Milja, Peter, Adrienne, and me. Then we ended up convincing Joelien to come with us too. We took the metro for just a little ways to The Bastille, which is basically a sidewalk on top of buildings. When I put it that way, it sounds really boring and pointless, but it's a pretty place to walk. The sidewalk is straight ahead, and it's through a garden. Then you can look at all of the apartments around you. Apparently, the sidewalk is right where there used to be a train track. I say apparently, because I really can't understand how that''s possible. Can there really be a train talk on top of houses? I don't think so! Though everyone who explained it to me did sound pretty convincing...
The walk didn't take very long, and when we got back down we were in a street with all these gallery type of stores. It was nice there because you could look in the windows at all these super ornate pieces of diamond jewelry, hand carved instruments, bejewled wedding dresses, huge chandeliers, and all sorts of paintings. Also, it was the first place in Paris that we had really gone which wasn't a major tourist attraction. It felt like we were actually in Paris, just being in Paris, and not rushing to get from one tourist attraction to the other. We took our time walking back to the metro, and then we took the metro to- guess where?!- where my mom used to live when she was a nanny in Paris for a year. Mijla had thought of the idea to go there before we even left for Paris, so she asked my mom for the address. The street where she lived is also full of galleries now, but smaller ones. We stopped and took a picture in front of the door, and then we walked around the corner. It's weird to think that almost thirty years ago (sorry Mom, I'm rounding up a little), my mom was walking on the same street, and going through the same door I stood in front of. And that was all way before I knew her, or she knew me. We've both been in that exact same place, so incredibly far away from home.
Right around the corner is the president's palace, and streets and streets full of high end designer stores. just to let everyone know, I've decided that I'm going to be rich when I grow up so that I can buy all of the amazing things in the stores. Of course, I realize that money doesn't buy happiness, but I'm pretty sure you can have happiness and money, even if they're not the same thing. I'm still trying to figure out how to make that happen, I'll let everyone know when I have a set plan.When we got back from our walk on Wednesday, everyone was getting ready for dinner. Walking into the warm apartment, and smelling food, and having that warm feeling you get on your face after you've been outside for a long time is one of the nicest things ever. While we were in Paris, we spent a lot of the evenings all of us sitting in the same apartment, playing games, and drinking tea. One of my favorite things so far about being here is that Milja and Taiana have so much of their family close by. My extended family has always been so far away my whole life, and now I get to be a part of a family that is always together and I love that.
Bare with me everyone, the novel about Paris is almost over, and then we can get back to everyday life! I'm starting to panic a little bit, I'm falling so far behind...
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