Beauty... the Best Medicine

Morphine, cocaine, ecstasy, vicodin... forget them all, I'd take the architectural beauty of Paris ANY DAY! Today was the most beautiful day; started out rainy and gray with a violent wind that would literally propel you forward, but by lunchtime it was stunning! The sun was shining and though it was a bit nipple-y outside, the rays seemed to warm my soul. After a French class filled with direct and indirect pronouns, I grabbed lunch and took it to the Luxembourg Gardens (right across from my school!) When I first arrived in January, the gardens were beautiful but brown with no hint of life within their gates. But today they were beginning to 'spring' to life. As I sat in a reclining lounge chair I couldn't help but smile... at first it was just the corners of my mouth, but with every turn of my head in a new direction my grin turned into a full on, million dollar (thanks to braces) smile! À ma droite was the Luxembourg Palace, built for Marie de Medicis in 1615 (which now houses the French Senate)... À ma gauche was what seemed to be an endless display of status... and directly in front of me was a pond populated with different types of birds. I could literally feel my skin drinking up the rays of sunlight, absorbing all the vitamin D I could get!

I am a firm believer in the importance of beautiful things. The reason Paris is such a remarkable city is because they believe in the same thing... promoting happiness by infusing beauty into every aspect of daily life; the romantic architecture, the prevalence of museums covering everything from impressionism to erotica, the accordion music heard on your ride through the metro, and the food that is made into art... all are experienced within one day, leaving absolutely no time for depression! People could save a lot of money on therapy by just buying a plane ticket to Paris rather than undergoing psychoanalysis for decades. Who knew you could be so happy just sitting in a chair and watching, or not even that, closing your eyes and just FEELING! People in the States have forgotten how to just feel. How to live out each moment as though it were a precious gift instead of a God given right... But the French have not forgotten, the French value life turning the mundane into joie de vivre. The French refuse to conform to the costco/ value-pack lifestyle Americans have generated, a life that is made up of unhealthy habits and obsessions (money, stress, food, etc). The French preserve their ways with gusto... and this battle for their fabulous lifestyle is what most Americans perceive as rudeness. As a nation we are sooo hypocritical. When any other culture crosses into our boarders we expect them to first and foremost speak English and second to understand 'American" values (they are in America after-all!) But when Americans travel they expect everyone around them to conform to their habits and are COMPLETELY inflexible... (wow just went on a rant there, haha)

Bottom line is I feel like I have found my friend in Paris, so much so that I love just spending time, me and her, experiencing life together. It is an amazing feeling to be so utterly happy that it makes you almost want to cry... ha, now if I could just get the language down things would be much easier!

(ps. im having lots of difficulty uploading pictures but im trying!)

Cemetery Solitude...

Today walking through infinite rows of tombs stones and crypts gave be incredible perspective. As I observed each stone's unique ornamentation which symbolized the lives of the thousands of people now 6ft under, I felt like I was learning a little about each person. The silence of the Montparnasse cemetery was palpable, but I loved it, it was cleansing in a way... After this weekend of intense sightseeing a hyper-stimulation if was nice to just spend the day by myself in thought.

This cemetery is home to many famous authors, poets and singers as well as generations of families all buried under the same headstone. As I stumbled over the many different levels of tombs I started singing to myself; at first very quietly , just under my breath, but then as I continued through what seemed to be the endless/lifeless cemetery I started belting it out! Jazz classics were what first came to mind (Marisa like on our train ride back to Rome:) and I felt Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ole Blue Eyes channeling through my lungs and out my lips. A very windy day, all the trees rustled and leaves danced in cyclones beneath my boots. I liked reading the tombstones and seeing the old and new flowers resting inside the crypts. A section of the cemetery was highly concentrated with Jewish last names and emblems... and of course fake plastic flowers, oy! Typical of Russian Jews at least, it made me think of my grandmother who I think of a great deal as I walk the streets of Paris. She spent her years after the Holocaust living in Paris and always wanted to return to the Paris joie de vivre. I envision what her Paris must have looked like and how much I would loved have walked these streets with her chic self now...

This weekend all the ADPi girls visited my city, coming from Madrid and Rome. Its crazy how much you can do in two days but yet how much more of the city they unfortunately missed out on due to time constraints. We did the major sights, including a trip to the top of the Tour Eiffel which I had not done yet. And I will not do it again! ughhh Even in the off season the lines were awful... I felt like cattle which greatly took away from the experience, but we made the best of it... Having them here was nice, but unfortunately brought on a wave of not what I would categorize as home sickness-- but "people sickness"... haha

Mais... IM IN PARIS! All I need to do is grab a crepe and walk into a museum and the funk is gone... pretty great anti-depressant I would say, non?

Où est la bibliothèque???

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I would seriously utter the phrase "où est la bibliothèque" but today I DID! I went to the Sorbonne library to do my french homework and was it beautiful! Few colleges in the US can compare to the utter beauty of la Sorbonne's architecture. Their lecture halls alone are riddled with fresco's and Baroque sculptures of ancient intellectuals of the past, imparting their wisdom as they look down on you with encouragement. I felt embarrassed when I sat down amidst all other french étudiants and pulled out my level two french book, conjugating my -ir verbs, as they intensely studied the laws of physics and the writings of Rousseau. But I held my head up high, and convinced myself that they could not do that in English, so I was fine...

After finishing mes devoirs, I went to the Louvre to meet my art class for a tour of Rubens and van Dyke paintings. Professor Baltay is a fabulous 73 year old woman going on 50, with a salt and pepper coiffure, stream lined physic (honestly she is rail thin), and a fabulous wardrobe of luxurious fabrics in all muted tones... a true Parisian... from New York. But it is her mind that is truly amazing. A walking encyclopedia of all things to do with art and culture she led the class of 10 students through the maze of le ancien palace (the Louvre) at a pace faster than I would like to admit! She brought us to this large room filled with very large Baroque Ruben's paintings that appeared at first glance to be beautiful, gaudy, and somewhat the same. But through her detailed explanation we learned that each of these masterpieces (clockwise) told the story of Maria de Medici's life. From her godlike birth to her marriage to the King of France Henry IV, to her ascension up to heaven, all was elaborated with the extraordinary undulation of a paintbrush. A room which I would have given possibly 5 minutes of my time just browsing by each painting we dedicated an entire 45 minutes in observation, totally worth it!

I transferred into a higher level of french today, "Intermediare" which I will go to tomorrow. I am nervous that I will just clam up the way I always do in my previous French classes, not being able to push myself to the next level. But this is the only opportunity I get... I must try... wish me luck for tomorrow!

Something has changed my world...

I disagree with the Beatles. Yes it is a blunt statement that I never thought I would say, but "nothing's gunna change my world" is completely false. Paris has changed my world entirely; language, culture, fashion, food, friends, figure (a bit wider perhaps)... you name it and it has changed. And what a tremendous transformation it has been. I love it here and can honestly see myself living in so many different parts of Paris long term; the Marais, the 7th arrondissement, near the Luxembourg gardens... every nook holds a special value to me now. I have been given such a special gift... a 4 month opportunity to make this city my own and appreciate all the amazing gifts it has to give me (thanks mom!)...


As you all can tell, I am not a consistent blogger... in fact this is my first entry after a month and a half of livinghere... but this is because, I am LIVING here, squeezing all the juice out of it I can! I find it hard to make time for daily or even weekly documentation, but now I will try harder!


Today I had my french class at the Sorbonne, cleaned my room from head to toe, and now am heading off to my FABULOUS art history course on Baroque and Rococo Art. Professor Baltay is a fabulously chic 70 year old who looks late 50's and she knows her stuff! Its a very fun class that takes us to the Louvre every other week to look at art. C'est ma vie! Incroyable, non?