A Little Bit of Backtracking

Monday I was frantically studying for a midterm.  Tuesday I was frantically taking a midterm.  Yesterday I was frantically trying to recover from the midterm.  Okay, not really.  But let's catch up.

Monday really was mostly just studying for the elective history class.  I'm starting to think that taking all four was one of the dumbest things I've ever done.  I've enjoyed them all but it's a heavy workload.  It's a good thing I'm one of those people who prefer a hard class you get a lot from rather than an easy class you don't get much from.  

The most amazing part of it was Monday night when we went to a play called Bingo.  The play itself wasn't that fantastic.  BUT.  Patrick Stewart, the dude who plays Charles Xavier in X-Men and Captain Picard in Start Trek was in it!  After much whining and pleading, I switched spots with Jordan in the group so I could sit front row for the first half.  I could have reached out and touched him.  At one point he looked out into the audience and right at me.  I beamed at him.  He's amazing.  

After the play we came back and studied until our brains turned into puddles of goo and then got up early to do as much studying as possible before class and the test.  Unfortunately it was one of the tests where you have a bunch of things you're not quite sure about.  I had six or seven things from the essay question I didn't know and one essay that I wasn't well prepared to write.  Guess what?  I got ALL of those unsure essay questions and the one essay I didn't know what to talk about.  My first instinct was to laugh.  My second was to get teary.  My third was, "Well, not gonna do well.  Might as well just go for it."  I think that relaxed me a lot so I did a lot better than I would have otherwise.  My score wasn't fantastic but still not too shabby.

Then yesterday most of the group went to see Les Miserables at 2:30.  I don't like Les Mis.  I think the music is brilliant.  The set and the acting was brilliant.  The costuming was fun.  That trombone player was incredible (I know most people don't rant about that after seeing a play but there were moments when the trombonist played some super hard stuff and I was very very impressed).  I think it's a good commentary of various things.  But it still bothers me.  Thankfully it didn't bother me as much as the last time though.  I can read, talk, or think about prostitutes, starvation, or wars and be okay but I have a really hard time seeing it.  For example, I can watch Lord of the Rings because it's not a true story but Titanic gave me nightmares for weeks and I saw it for the first time when I was a senior in high school.  It's the human suffering that gets to me I think.  I have a horrible time watching a woman who is so desperate that she has few choices but to go be a prostitute, gets an STD, and dies a miserable death.  I have a hard time seeing a little boy get caught up in a cause and die for it.  Did he even understand what he was getting into?  I have a hard time seeing a man who does his best to be a good person and still ends up alone in a dark room at the end of his life until a few people show up just in time to watch him die.  All those people decided that they have a cause worth fighting--and dying-- for but most things are still not resolved.  I can't take it as just a story because I know those things really have happened and some of them are still happening..  It frustrates me to see how horrible humans can be, how awful peoples lives have been at times, and most of all how I can't do anything to stop prostitution or end world hunger.  I know some people like social commentary or seeing the best and worst of humans in a book or play but it always disturbs me.  I had a really hard time sleeping last night.  Maybe I'm just too tender hearted.

Good things:

1. DONE WITH KITCHEN CREW!  I'm going to miss spending a couple hours with the Mason girls every night but it's a relief not to have to worry about it anymore.

2. The Masons have suddenly been showing us their hidden talents.  The other day Matt started rapping and then Nick did it and then they did it together for a grand finale.  It was amazing.  Also, when we went to Les Mis, Nick's daughter was going with us so he said, "I just have one request" and then sang "bring her home."  It was hilarious.

3. Last night I was brave and ate duck for the first time.  It was quite good.

Oui, Paris!

Once we got started on our adventure, we decided that we weren't going to take the Metro so we could see the city.  Our first stop was Notre Dame.

View of the Seine along the way

Gargoyles!

We stopped to take a bunch of pictures of course and then we went in.  I've seen many many cathedrals and churches over the past two months so it felt a bit same-old same-old but it was beautiful.  We all paid a few extra euros to go see the treasury.  We would have liked to see the towers but they didn't open until much later in the day.  The treasury was cool, though.  They had pieces of relics of the saints and pieces of crosses and lots of gold and things like that.  We've been studying saints and relics in the history classes so it was fun to see some of those things we've been learning about.  It was interesting that there were such small relics, the tiniest slivers of crosses, in such elaborate containers.  It was also dark even with all the windows.  It was interesting to imagine coming to religious services in such an elaborate but still dark building.

Relics

Stained class in the Cathedral

All the Popes

After we finished there we went to Sainte-Chapelle.  The stained glass was amazing.  It was also the spot where they used to keep the crown of thorns and other relics like that until the French Revolution and they moved them to Notre Dame.  I didn't see them there but apparently it's where they are now.

After we went there we headed down the street a little ways to get to La Conciergerie.  Creepiest place I have ever been and I'm not talking about the prison cells.  The majority of it was dedicated to modern art stuff and it was disturbing.  I felt a little bit sick in there because it was so bad.  We hurried through there as fast as possible to get to the historical areas.  People being guillotined is much more pleasant to think about than the "art" they had there.

Next we headed to the Latin Quarter to have lunch.  I had my first panini and it was amazing.  We ate it while walking to the Pantheon which was my favorite thing in all of Paris.  I love crypts.  Maybe it's a little creepy, but I love being underground, stone walls all around me, looking at where dead people have been buried.  Famous dead people.  Voltaire, Louis Braille, Marie and Pierre Curie, Victor Hugo (Les Miserables) are burried there.  My favorite, however, was Alexandre Dumas!  I admit that I was freaking out a lot because I was so excited about that one.  

Our next stop was Luxenbourg Gardens.  We didn't stay for very long, just long enough to take a few pictures and move along.  We then headed to the Pompidou, a modern art museum.  On our way over we saw the LDS missionaries and we had a lovely time talking to them for a few minutes.  We saw them from all the way across the street because LDS missionaries really stand out in the crowds of Paris.  After a little while at the Pompidou (and losing one of our number there) we headed to the part we were all most excited for: the Louvre!

We had an assignment so we had things we had to go see but we were all so tired and our feet hurt so much that it was difficult to enjoy it.  There were other things I would have liked to see but in that state it wasn't happening.  I loved the building itself.  It was once a palace and had amazing ceilings.  I didn't take very many pictures of the art, just of the ceilings.  The best part was when I was standing in the room with the Mona Lisa.  Everyone was shoving past trying to get pictures of that and I was standing there trying to get pictures of the ceiling.  After a few hours we found all we came to see so we sat down and rested for a while.  I tried to finish my assignment sheet but I couldn't think, couldn't spell (when I'm tired I add in letters.  After I spelled "was" w-a-s-e I decided I'd better not work on it anymore), and couldn't quite stay awake.  We exited the museum and went to a nice sit down restaurant so we could sit down and stay sitting down for a few minutes for the first time all day.

And... now the pictures because I got tired of trying to put them in order!

Awkward in Luxembourg Gardens

The City of Love is working for me.

Sarah, Annie, Christi, Abby, Jordan, Kaylee, Me

Jordan doesn't quite look like he fits in.

I wanted to try this burger but never did 

Kaylee looking gorgeous in the gardens

Paris Rule #1: You can't eat it unless you take a picture of it.  Dinner.

Ceilings

List of the Guillotined 

Panini

Pantheon

Victor Hugo

Alexandre Dumas

The Curies

Happy in the Crypt

 Joan of Arc pictures from my sister:

The whole thing.  Pantheon

 Ceilings in the Louvre:

Tired in the Louvre

Halfway done with the Paris posts!