Falling in love with Paris...

It's been a busy but exciting couple of days. Our very first class was at Notre Dame, which was absolutely mind-blowing. For one thing, the cathedral is much bigger than I realized, and far more ornate. The entire thing is covered in statues and carving and stained glass. I particularly love the gargoyles. I don't know exactly how to describe what it was like to be inside the cathedral. I think my jaw literally dropped. The ceiling is over 100 feet high, and the stained glass lights the entire place beautifully. I will probably overuse the word "beautiful" in my descriptions of my summer. Everything in Paris is beautiful. And Notre Dame is the most beautiful thing I've seen so far. It is truly spectacular. Pictures could never do it justice, but I will post them anyways, hopefully soon. I want to go back to climb the bell tower (check out Quasimodo's hang-out) and my professor recommended that even the non-religious attend an organ mass on Sunday. I can't imagine what Notre Dame will be like when it is filled with music.

I feel like I've walked all over Paris. Our classes start at 8 or 9 am and we usually alternate between walking and drawing all the way up until around 5 pm. I'm starting to call it my Paris diet: walk all day and don't eat much. By the end of the day we are all exhausted, but we get to see so much. We also visited Eglise Sainte-Clotilde and Saint Denis, although they were not quite as beautiful as Notre Dame. We have seen the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, Les Invalides, the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe, the Tuilleries, the Palais Royal, Place des Vosges, Place de la Bastille, l'Arsenal, the Eiffel Tower (and probably much more that I can't think of right now) on our walking tours. I also ended up inside the Louvre by accident for a little bit (the metro station exited into it, I didn't realize until I turned a corner and saw I.M.Pei's inverted pyramid. That was quite the surprise!)

Speaking of the metro, we are all becoming pros at navigating the city's public transit system. The metro and the RER and the tram are all very convenient and well organized. I think I have heard Paris's transit system described as the best in the world and I wouldn't be surprised it if were true. We use it all the time, and it is great, although sometimes I feel a bite guilty spending time under ground in such a beautiful city.

Last night while using the communal kitchen I got to meet some other students in my building that were from Japan. They were all fluent in Japanese and French, and most of them spoke some English. I was impressed that they were tri-lingual. Being here really makes me wish I was at least bi-lingual. I'm not learning much new French, but perhaps that will come slowly. It would be great to take a class while I'm here. When I go home I will try to learn more so that when I come back some day I can actually carry on a conversation. I'm certainly not the worst French speaker here, I frequently see Americans who don't even try to use a little French, and it bothers me. I feel like you should at least try to learn the language of the country that you are in, rather than expect the world to know your language. No wonder Americans get a bad reputation.

Aside from simple manners, I feel there is a lot that America can learn from Paris (and probably the rest of Europe) in terms of design. One thing I really love about the city is that it's very dense, but it never feels too dense. The buildings are attractive, and there are plenty of gardens. Since all the buildings here are built wall-to-wall, there are often central courtyards that allow light in and cross-ventilation for the air. Simple, attractive, and an intelligent use of space. Why didn't America carry these ideas over? Also, things are small in Paris, but they are still comfortable. The dorm room that I share with one other girl is about 90-100 square feet, with maybe 40 square feet for the closet, sink and entry, and a little closet of a bathroom. Still, it is comfortable. Perhaps a permanent home could be a little bigger, but we don't need homes as big as we have in America.

Ok, that's all the ranting I will do for now on the flaws of American living.

Tomorrow we take the train out to see Chartres Cathedral. My professor says it is more impressive than Notre Dame (I can't even imagine!). It is located in a typical medieval town, which will be very cool to see. It will be a very early morning though, so I am off to bed. I'll try to post pictures soon!