(no subject)
Well, I'm back from Paris. Overall I'd say it was an alright trip... probably a B- in my book. Not because of the city itself (even though it was rainy and some of the people were very rude), but mostly because I went with a bunch of random annoying people. We left at 11:15 on thursday and travelled all night. The guy sitting next to me would constantly get up and bump in to me. Then, when everyone finally settled down, he'd hack up phlegm and spit it out into a kleenex... literally 6 inches away from me. Not only that, but he'd wake me up to give me useless bits of information. Come to think of it, my weekend was filled with quite a bit of useless pieces of information. One of the girls staying in my room would constantly seek attention and interrupt my reading/essay writing to go on about her friends' nicknames. Gah...
The first day wasn't good. I was tired, cranky, and I couldn't check in until 1:00, so I wandered around on foot for three hours. Actually, the first hour was wandering around... the other two were trying to find my way back. Along the way I did manage to meet some exceptionally strange people, one of whom engaged me in broken conversation for 25 minutes, then gave me his phone number. Weird.
The second day I went shopping. Sweet penis of Venus, that was amazing. I went to a huge department store called Printemps. It was the most wonderful store I've ever been in. I rode the escalator to the shoe floor (!!) and literally started shaking when I arrived. SO MANY SHOES! D&G, Chanel, Dior... everything. I made myself leave. Anyway, five sweet sweet hours of shopping later, I tried to catch a cab outside the store. The line for taxis was so long that it took about an hour and fifteen minutes. Then, when it was finally my turn, this little French bitch tried to steal my cab. Let me tell you, I was so cold and hungry at that point that I got properly sassy with her. I snapped my fingers and said, "HELL No!" and pushed her out of the way. You guys would have been proud.
Today I went to the Louvre. It was everything I dreamed it could be and more. 35,000 pieces of art... can you imagine? It was so cool seeing all these paintings that I've been studying in class. At the same time, I discovered yet another pet peeve (and perhaps the biggest one of all).
So, here we are in the Louvre. It's easily the best art museum in the world. And yet, here are these people walking around, taking pictures of everything and then just walking away. It wouldn't bother me so much if they'd actually LOOK at what they're photographing. I mean, there are these heartbreaking pieces of art all around us, and for someone to reduce it to an... image seems like such a crime. This one family in particular was really pissing me off. I watched them and they didn't even stop to appreciate the artwork... they'd just pose in front of it, take a picture, then leave. Or, worse yet, look at it long enough through the viewfinder to get the whole painting, snap the picture and walk away. I just hate that mindset. To me, carrying a camera is a huge burden. I don't like thinking that I have to document all these images. Rather, I'd like to allow the beauty of my surroundings to impact me in a significant and sincere way. And for the record, I didn't take any pictures whatsoever. I think my memories will last me long enough.
Okay, it's 6:30 am. Time to sleep.
The first day wasn't good. I was tired, cranky, and I couldn't check in until 1:00, so I wandered around on foot for three hours. Actually, the first hour was wandering around... the other two were trying to find my way back. Along the way I did manage to meet some exceptionally strange people, one of whom engaged me in broken conversation for 25 minutes, then gave me his phone number. Weird.
The second day I went shopping. Sweet penis of Venus, that was amazing. I went to a huge department store called Printemps. It was the most wonderful store I've ever been in. I rode the escalator to the shoe floor (!!) and literally started shaking when I arrived. SO MANY SHOES! D&G, Chanel, Dior... everything. I made myself leave. Anyway, five sweet sweet hours of shopping later, I tried to catch a cab outside the store. The line for taxis was so long that it took about an hour and fifteen minutes. Then, when it was finally my turn, this little French bitch tried to steal my cab. Let me tell you, I was so cold and hungry at that point that I got properly sassy with her. I snapped my fingers and said, "HELL No!" and pushed her out of the way. You guys would have been proud.
Today I went to the Louvre. It was everything I dreamed it could be and more. 35,000 pieces of art... can you imagine? It was so cool seeing all these paintings that I've been studying in class. At the same time, I discovered yet another pet peeve (and perhaps the biggest one of all).
So, here we are in the Louvre. It's easily the best art museum in the world. And yet, here are these people walking around, taking pictures of everything and then just walking away. It wouldn't bother me so much if they'd actually LOOK at what they're photographing. I mean, there are these heartbreaking pieces of art all around us, and for someone to reduce it to an... image seems like such a crime. This one family in particular was really pissing me off. I watched them and they didn't even stop to appreciate the artwork... they'd just pose in front of it, take a picture, then leave. Or, worse yet, look at it long enough through the viewfinder to get the whole painting, snap the picture and walk away. I just hate that mindset. To me, carrying a camera is a huge burden. I don't like thinking that I have to document all these images. Rather, I'd like to allow the beauty of my surroundings to impact me in a significant and sincere way. And for the record, I didn't take any pictures whatsoever. I think my memories will last me long enough.
Okay, it's 6:30 am. Time to sleep.