Day 52 - Nonsense

After some nice rest last night, we went down to breakfast for the last time. The funny guy at the desk told us that he would miss us. And he also mentioned that he liked my blonde 'californian' hair. I didn't bother telling him that I am not from California. Then we ate breakfast and that was pretty good. After that, we went back to our room. I filled in my study abroad assessment questions. These questions will go to the Dean to prove that this is a viable study abroad. DUH! Of course it is a viable study abroad. It is the very definition of one. Would it be right if music majors only listened to concerts on CD or just read the sheet music? No, of course not. They have to go to concerts in order to really understand and fully comprehend a piece. Same for us. It's good and all to see a picture of a painting or read a description of it, but it is something totally different and completing to see the painting with your own eyes. You cannot understand the minute detail of a Van Eyck or the thick impasto of a Van Gogh or the intensity of a Rembrandt or the fluidity of a Hals or the color modeling of a Rubens or the realness of a Bernini without seeing them in person. You just can't. Maybe I'm laying it on too thick, but it is the truth.

Anyway, I rested a bit while Tabitha caught up on her freewrites and Elisabeth did her assessment questions. I am now done with everything except for the notes at the Pompidou, which is tonight! I can't believe how quickly these past two months have gone by.

Then I went to the Orangerie with Tabitha.

Adam and Eve by Rodin.

So many colors to paint a tree trunk.

We went to the Louvre for some internet, of course :) and joined up with Elisabeth, Ali, and Shamra. Then we headed to Buttes-Chaumont park to meet with the group. Unfortunately, when we got off at the metro stop, it was pouring rain. We all gathered slowly inside of the metro stop.

We waited there for about 20 minutes until Greg came and told us that he moved the party to the institute because of the rain. We went over to the church, only to have the weather clear up. But we decided to stay at the church anyway.

Waiting for the room to be open.

In the room, waiting to eat. Silly Elisabeth :)

Martha cut up several baguettes while Greg explained about the different cheeses that they brought. They also talked to us for a while about our group and the potential we all have laying ahead of us. It was so sweet! I will miss them. They are so truly caring for each one of us all the time. Then we dug in.

I only tried one cheese because I've tried several with my host family and I really don't like French cheese in general. But the cheese I tried was so good! Greg said that they sell it in the states. I'll have to try to find it. Then we had dessert which was mille feuille (thousand pieces), strawberry tart, eclair, and macarons! It was most excellent.

Then to the Pompidou. It was really nice to learn about all the modern art.

My camera would not allow me to take a close up picture of that blue square. So strange.

During all this, I had a moment of hilarity. I was looking back at this one sculpture and saw a woman standing by it. I recognized her as a human being, but as I turned back around, I thought, "No, that's a sculpture." I guess she was really sculpturesque. Anyway, then I turned back around and confirmed to myself that she was a sculpture then I had a sudden realization that she was a person when she moved. I jumped. And started laughing hysterically. It was an extremely odd feeling that doesn't really make sense as I am now writing it. So I was laughing uncontrollably. Tears were streaming down my face and a vein in my forehead was throbbing. Wow. It was awesome.

Then we had a lecture about feminism before we went into the dreaded feminist exhibit. I looked at as little as possible. I don't like these types of out-of-control feminists. Why is objectifying the female body so much better if a woman does it rather than a man? In my eyes, there is no difference. Ridiculous. Anyway, I saw a few cool things.

We wandered around a bit and could leave whenever we wanted to. No freewrite.

It says please.

:)

I passed under this building everyday when I lived in Paris.

Then we went back to the hotel. So a few days ago, Shamra bought a toy that lights up and also is attached to a rubber band so it can we slingshotted into the air, then it helicopters back down. Anyway, she decided to shoot it off for the first time outside of the hotel this evening. Ali didn't want to come outside so she was waiting up on the fifth floor.

Fuzzy, but she's up there.

Well, Shamra shot off her toy...

and it landed on someone's window, two floors down from Ali's room.

So she took a piece of soap and threw it out the window. It hit the toy and moved it a tiny bit, but not enough.

Well we ended up tying a bar of soap to the end of about twenty feet of floss.

Toy from above.

Trying to figure out what to do.

Tying the floss onto the soap.

Our little contraption.

So then Shamra lowered it down to the toy. But then we realized that someone should be down there to get the toy when it falls. So Elisabeth and I ran down there to retrieve it but we told Shamra to wait to knock it off until we got there so no one would steal it. Well, sometime between the slamming of the room door to the opening of the front door of the hotel, the soap gained too much momentum, knocking the toy off. Unfortunately, it fell onto a group of guys. Enter Elisabeth and Ariel. The guys were swearing up at Shamra and all them, then walked off to the tram. We tried asking for it, but they were being jerks. Well, as they walked away, I was sure we were not going to get it because they seemed unwilling to give it back and there was no way I was walking any closer to them. Anyway, while they were walking away, a girl passed by them and, for whatever reason, they threw the toy at her. After waiting until they were a safe distance away, I ran up and grabbed the toy. Then Elisabeth and I ran to the hotel even though the guys couldn't care less! So that was our adventure for this evening.

So here's the floss we used after wading it up :)

When we got back into our room, we went to Greg and Martha's room and turned in our notebooks, survey answers, and receivers. We are all done! I can't believe it has gone by so quickly. I sure will miss Europe, especially Paris!