It's starting to hit me that we're leaving Paris. First, it happened when we arrived back from Belgium Sunday night, drowsy and hazy from traveling only to realize we only had 4 days of class left. Then it happened again yesterday when our housing coordinator emailed us the check-out info for our studio apartments. Today we got an email from the BIA Center assistant director which contained our boarding passes and information about our departure Friday morning. And just now the activities director emailed us that she is coming in to work early tomorrow to say good-bye. I knew it was all coming, and it has finally hit me that part one of this amazing summer abroad adventure is coming to a close.
Today we had our last Cities as Living Museums class in Paris. Our teacher met us at the RER train stop just outside the Musee d'Orsay, and we sat on the bank of the Seine eating these light sugary pastries she bought for us. More or less, it was a way to "sugar coat" our final exam. Because each class in the three cities is so different, each teacher is giving us a question to write a short response paper about and then turn them all in together during our final exam period in Madrid. Ideally she wants us to start it now-actually a very good idea-so that we have less to do in Spain and the material will still be fresh in our heads. Afterwards we packed up and walked to Musee d'Orsay to wrap up our class session from last Wednesday. Today's visit focused primarily on the evolution of modern art, and we looked at a few paintings in particular that demonstrated this concept. To close at d'Orsay, we walked through the Vincent Van Gogh exhibit before hopping on a bus to another museum.
I had always been told it was different, but what I saw today at the Centre Georges Pompidou was unlike any other. From the outside the building looks like a giant warehouse, a high-tech architecture style building with color-coded structural elements. The center itself is home to some of the most famous (and somewhat obscure in my opinion) modern art in Paris but also has a cinema, beautiful balcony on the top, and library for college students to do work. My favorite part of the building was the series of escalators that made you feel like you were going through tubes.
After our museum visit, we parted ways with our professor and stopped for lunch at a place called La Fresca for lunch via her recommendation. She was certainly right that it was an amazing lunch place-we got there around 12:15 and by 1:00 the restaurant was a mad flurry of people coming in and our, which certainly kept the wait staff busy. After lunch we walked to the nearby metro stop and headed to our final museum visit in Paris, Fondation Louis Vuitton. The 900 Million euro structure is massive and modern, looking almost like an unfinished adult jungle gym where you could film a spy movie. While I enjoyed the visit, the art was not my favorite, as it was scattered and all over the place. Luckily, the building had a breathtaking view of downtown Paris, which looked more like a New York skyline than anything else. Despite all of this, I was excited to see The Scream, a painting that I have only ever seen in textbooks for the longest time. While I got yelled at (by a security guard) trying to take a picture, I can certainly say that it looks just as it does on the internet but it was definitely 500x cooler seeing it in person. May even prefer it to the Mona Lisa...
Now, as I sit here in my room on my second-to-last night in Paris I can hardly believe where the time has gone. Just two weeks ago today I was getting used to city living and had trouble just navigating my way around the neighborhood. Even as I pack up my belongings while listening to the sounds of the 15th arrondissement I cannot help but smile knowing that ROME is going to be just as amazing. Different, but still amazing. Stay tuned for a feature post about my favorite moments in Paris as well as a recap on my last day as a local student!
Until then, au revoir!
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