Clueless American Visits Louvre, Eats Gelato

View from a Parisian garden

Bonjour!

It has been a weird couple of days. On Thursday, I went to the Louvre with a few new friends from my program. Overall, it was a really positive experience. I definitely want to go back with a walking tour downloaded onto my phone. Everything in the museum looks like something that you read about somewhere, and I want to have the historical context for the most significant works of art. Before I went, I had heard many contradictory opinions of the Mona Lisa. The room that houses the Mona Lisa is much larger than I expected from other people's descriptions. It was really shocking to turn the corner and see the Mona Lisa. My personal opinion is that there are definitely layers to the painting that show up better in person, but people who act as if you haven't seen Real Art until you see the Mona Lisa in person are wrong.

Crowd looking at the Mona Lisa

Portrait of Claudius, Roman emperor from AD 41 to 54

Anyway, this whole amazing Parisian tourist experience was overshadowed by the lunch we ate beforehand. At the restaurant, I completely forgot to remove my hat, and nobody said anything about it. When the waiter came with my drink, instead of handing it to me right away, he laughed as he slowly, bit by bit, pulled my hat right off my head. For some reason, this is the event that has set off my first real wave of culture shock. If I get lost, that is because I have no sense of direction and no data/Internet. Honestly, being the person that I am, I would probably get lost within my first week in any major city. But, if I forget not to wear a hat inside, this is because I am a silly American who is ignorant of social customs. It's just hard, because every day I'm both like "Paris is beautiful and every day is an adventure" and "My feet are covered in blisters and I'm spending too much money and I just want to sleep".

In other news, yesterday was also a nice day. After my last two orientation meetings, I went to a gelato shop where they scoop gelato in the shape of roses with some friends from my home university. It was incredible gelato, and so aesthetically pleasing! For dinner, I wound up getting pizza at this pizza place five minutes away from my homestay, so it was a day filled with Italian food. The pizza was just like pizza in the United States, so it felt like a little taste of home.

Gelato from Amorino

Au revoir,
Lydia

P.S. My new favorite French word is hurluberlu, which sounds fake but means scatterbrained.

My copy of Cyrano de Bergerac is responsible for teaching me these strange words.

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