Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Grouchiest Blog Post

Hello! This post is literally just Grumpy Lydia complaining. If that sounds miserable, congratulations! You have my full permission to click away now. If that sounds like something you wouldn't mind reading, please enjoy and/or suffer through this list of Lydia's Miseries. I was on vacation in Italy all last week, which means that there are many lingering tasks that have not been completed. My flight was delayed on Monday, which means that I missed class, which has led to me being even more behind.  Housing selection was yesterday, and I am trying to force myself to come to terms with the fact that I'm pretty much definitely going to be living alone next year, which will contribute to my depression next year and makes me feel lonely in the present. There are just, like, a lot of lingering thoughts that I cannot find the words to write about.  It is cold and wet and sad outside, which means that a Self-Imposed Walk to Help With Lingering Sadness would probably jus
Post a Comment
Read more

Friends, I'm Trying to Keep In Touch

Hello, friends! I feel like the only thing worse than spending 85% of your life on social media is talking constantly about the fact that you are no longer spending 85% of your life on social media. However, I must explain that, since deciding to take a break from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, I have realized that those platforms allowed me to have a sense of social connection without much actual social connection. It is easy to feel connected to someone when you see the mundane details of their existence on Instagram Stories, watch them have mental breakdowns on Twitter, and read the articles they share on Facebook. Without those sources of information on my friends' lives, I began to realize that I hadn't actually been talking to that many people. Despite interacting with friends on Twitter, responding to their Instagram stories, and participating in conversations in Soka's sketch comedy club's group chat, I wasn't spending much time cultivating my friendship
Post a Comment
Read more

Reviewing My August 2019 Goals

This is an image of my desk during Fall Semester 2018. On the right side of the photo, there is a vintage Singer sewing machine which, unfortunately, does not work. To the left of the sewing machine, there is a crate books inside. On top of the crate, there is a stack of Rookie Yearbooks with a crocheted jellyfish (wearing glasses) on top of it, and a picture frame containing a print that reads "all the time". To the left of the crate, there are a few more books. In lieu of a proper bookend, I have placed a tarot deck (stored in a black makeup bag) and a book-themed Halloween decoration (featuring book spines with the words "Potions", "Hexes", and "Spells") to keep my books from toppling over. I chose this photograph because, unlike my current desk, this desk looks like it belongs to someone who creates monthly goals. Hello! At the start of this month, I made a list of goals. As September 1 draws near, I am l
Post a Comment
Read more