I never felt I was a cultured person. In fact, I think I am pretty uncultured. I don't really like red wine, do not read Kant in spare time, try various ethnic foods, or go to museums. These are just things that I never really did and for a long time I was okay with it. But one of the reasons I came to Europe was to find a culture that my classmates possessed but I felt I constantly lacked. I wanted to see the famous paintings that I would see in Intro to Art History and the Italian Renaissance. I wanted to be able to drink wine without making a face (the Imah face has not gone away my friends, only suprising new people who do not know me that well). So even though I was unable to get into the Pompidou and Picasso Museum, Deonna and I went to see the Musee D'Orsay. It was AMAZING!!!!! The sculptures and the exhibits and just the grandness of the building left me speechless for awhile. They have paintings by Van Gogh, Matisse, Renoir, and Rodin. Paintings that look nothing like the pictures they show you in class. In order to gain the full grasp of the essences of these paintings it is really crucial to go up close and look at the brushstrokes and the intricate details of these paintings. It was at the museum that I began to fully realize that I am Paris. The city for culture and that I came to immerse myself in the culture and do things that I have not done before and step outside of my comfort zone.
However, the Museum D'Orsay fails in comparison to the Louvre. All my life, I thought the Louvre was the Pyramid that you see in pictures. And I always wondered how can everything fit into that pyramid and why is it see through? The Pyramid is a speck in the Louvre's whole design. The Louvre is GIGANTIC!!!!!!! I want to say it is as big as the Uchicago main campus. I went for three hours and merely saw one exhibit (maybe 1/4 of a wing). It was overwhelming but amazing. I went to see the Egyptian exhibit and everything they had on display was incredible: tombs, jewelery, hunting tools, crypts, sacrophages. It was crazy!!!!
Afterwards, we had a conversation with Vincent (our lector) and he took us to sushi and then to his apartment. But what is so interesting about college in France is that kids do not live in dorms. They live at home or family residences and commute back and forth to school. I guess people do that in the U.S. but it is more the exception than the norm.
Today, once again, our people decided to wake us up at the crack of dawn and took us to the Assemblee National. It is essentially equivalent to our house of representatives. The building is beautiful on the inside. The paintings and the gold is nothing like I have ever seen before.
If you want to see pictures of all of these things: awinterinparis.shutterfly.com
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