Shock and Awe Part 1

from the most resent blog it shows i am in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. well, i can tell you that i was the time of my life and i really, REALLY want to go back. i spent 3 days in Paris with a whooping 100+ exchange students and 8 awesome rotarians. in this post, i will show pictures and tell you about them.

the bus ride was i think 17hrs long, but we had lots of fun. the down side was that no one got a lot of sleep because the seats were very uncomfortable, so there was always someone awake. some even slept on the floor (which i did on the way home and i got much more sleep!)
i was up at around 6:30am as the sun rose in France. i had the brilliant idea (which i have been wanting to do for a while now) of playing the "Circle of Life" from the movie "The Lion King (the opening song in it). luckily my friend had a speaker so i plugged my iPod in and waited for the opportune moment.

Started playing "Circle of Life"

as the song played, the crescendo grew. it was perfect. my companions stirred and awoke to music.

The entrance to the Louvre

we arrived in a hotel outside of Paris. most of us tired out of our minds, and hunger eating us from the inside out, but we were in an excited mood. after a breakfast that consisted of a croissant, yogurt, and other french hotel offerings, we made our way into the metro. when you begin to live in a foreign country, you are so confused and you try learn everything you can. for me, a big part is transportation and the language. when i got into the metro, i felt like i was back in august. i was lost, confused. i could only guess what the words were. but speaking the french that i know, was so fun.  my friends and i ended up drawing pencil mustaches on our fingers then putting them on our upper lips and speaking in a french accent most of the time. anyway, the mass of a group of 100+ can most deffinetly take over a train, and we sometimes overflowed it. we made it to our destination: Le Louvre. 

i dont know where to start with this. well one of the destinations was the Mona Lisa, but i wanted to see everything else. here are some pictures:

Hercules invents baseball

Wings of Victory

The Mona Lisa

Wedding Feast

Le Louvre

French Revolution

Venus von Milo

From the inside

go to the Louvre. if you have, go again. i know i will. the museum is immense, intriguing, imaginative, intimidating. the Louvre is a place of a million words. i could spend a good day inside there just lost in years of fantastic artworks of talented dead people who we have come to appreciate so much.

(to be continued........)