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!)