Quand, à Paris

It has been a dream of mine to see Paris since my seventh grade year of high school. I remember the day quite clearly: we seventh graders and our parents packed into Union's little out-dated cafeteria for orientation into high school. I spent most of the meeting day-dreaming(and hoping my mom was paying attention to everything)until the club advisors got up to share about the new opportunities that high school offered, and that is when Paris was mentioned. Suddenly, I hung onto every word about the French club like a puppy anticipating a treat. My mom shot me a glance as if to say, “Don't even think about it.” Four years later I found myself a member of the French club and with two and a half years of French under my belt. Of course, I let go of the whole thing once I felt like the class was turning into more of a chore and less of an enjoyment. Regardless, I ended up in Paris apart from the French club and while it was indeed a good experience, it was very different from what I expected.

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Point 1: So Italian men are the ones who have the reputation for being outrageously flirtatious, but I'd like to inform you that that stereotype is wrong. It is actually French men who are too flirtatious. Everywhere, from passing men on the streets, to sitting next to them on the metro, Paris men were not shy about showing their interest.

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Point 2: The French are stereotyped as hating Americans. That is untrue as well; they really actually love Americans. I didn't meet one Parisian who was not excited that we were American. Additionally, from what I saw, the culture of Paris seemed to try to mimic that of the U.S. So I didn't see the French dislike of America like everyone claims.

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Point 3: I expected Paris to be more classic and well...clean. Instead it was really dirty and really touristy. Lot's of unpleasant smells and sights...totally saw a few people publicly urinating. However, I do realize that cleanliness is an issue for any big city, so I can't say Paris was any worse than any other city.

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There were many aspects of Paris that I also really enjoyed. We saw the view of the city from L'Arc de Triomph and the Eiffel Tower, walked through THE Notre Dame Cathedral and Sainte Chapelle Chapel, went street shopping, and found THE Moulin Rouge(in daylight of course.) One night we packed a picnic dinner and had dinner in the park by the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower at night is worth seeing because every hour it lights up and right before it closes, it puts on an impressive light up show. It was a great way to spend the evening. Some of my favorite moments were the art museums we walked through. Yes, I was able to lay eyes on THE Mona Lisa, among many other works of art in Le Louvre. I also went through the Musee d'Orsay, which displayed the original works of Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Van Gogh! I never imagined I would see the actual works of art that I had attempted to replicate in my high school art classes, but I did, and I am so blessed and thankful for the opportunity.

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Now that I'm traveling on my own, I am starting to see how exhausting traveling can be. The stress of buying tickets for public transportation and the effort it took to figure out some public transportation systems often made me feel like traveling wasn't worth it. Of course, now that break is over, the stressful adventures have turned into good stories, my roommate and I can only look back and laugh at the hilarity of it all.

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Well that has been my life recently. I love my life but I do miss so many things about home too. I hope you all are doing well and will be excited to see everyone when I get back in seven weeks.

Sincerely,

Maria