Eat, Go to Class, Museum, Repeat

Wow. Can’t believe it’s only been a few days since my last post, because so much has gone on! The idea seems to be that since I only have one class for now (the other class starts next Monday), that the extra time spent not in class will be spent in the museum.

After working at the Pompidou Library, I met a friend and we headed up to the fifth floor to see the modern art museum. The Centre Pompidou is designed to be “inside out,” so the piping and escalators are actually outside the building. So, while heading up to the fifth floor, we got a beautiful view of the city.

We didn’t get too much time in the museum, but I really liked the art that I saw. It was a mix of some great abstract art and some more curious pieces of naturalistic art. Probably my favorite thing that wasn’t art itself that I saw there was a layout of pages from an Italian manifesto describing what the future would be like, with topics ranging from art to music, technology, and political systems. I tried to use my general knowledge of romance languages to figure out what these meant, but I gave up soon after. Maybe later I’ll go again and spend some more time with this.

Chagall at the Centre Pompidou

After this museum came our first class. It was a broad introduction to the ideas of thermodynamics. So far, I really like our professor. He’s a PhD student originally from Algeria. He’s very nice, you get the sense that he genuinely cares about our class, keeps a very light classroom attitude, and he wants us all to learn and understand. It should be a great half semester!

I went shopping the next morning, and though it may seem mundane, I bring it up for a reason. I have been trying to sound polite when speaking to people, so, when I wanted to ask one of the employees where the honey is, I started simply with « Pardon ? », meaning simply, “excuse me?” before asking for where the honey was. Instead of responding, she said back to be « Bonjour », prompting me to respond also with « Bonjour » before asking again. I appreciated that little nudge.

When I got back to the hostel, I cooked myself some lunch and spent about two hours just talking with the people there, getting to know them better. I really like the people here, they’re all super nice, speak a wide range of languages, and are always excited to get to know me better. I’m super glad I’m in this hall. It’s exciting for me that you can start a sentence in one language and end it in another and nobody will bat an eye.

The museum for that day was the Picasso Museum. I won’t say too much about it, but it was a great museum filled with both what one would imagine of Picasso, and some other more traditional works of his.

Mimicking the art at the Picasso Museum

Friday was a really great day. In the morning, I went with a friend of mine who’s studying Nuclear Engineering (I’m working in a nuclear lab the second half of this summer as well) to the Marie and Pierre Curie Museum. This place was so great! If you want to hit up free museums in Paris, this one is a must! What excited me the most was that you can see into Marie Curie’s lab where she discovered Radium. In that lab is a doorknob that she used to use every day to go between her lab and her office, which then is highly contaminated with radioactive material.

The lab Marie Curie discovered Radium in!

The rest of the time before class was spent sitting outside by the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon. To get to the Curie Museum, I took the bus, which, in my opinion, stops way too often and doesn’t go fast enough. Then to get to the Eiffel Tower, I took the RER, a commuter-train/metro hybrid, and later, I’d take the metro, which covers the three major forms of public transportation here. We then headed (back) over to the Eiffel Tower, but now instead of it being overcast and shady, it was beautiful weather and in perfect lighting to make it shine. It was truly an amazing sight. I know it’s cliché to say that the Eiffel Tower is beautiful, awe-inspiring, etc. but things get a reputation for a reason! We headed up to the top of the tower right at sunset and saw the beautiful city and sunset from there. It was a fantastic feeling, at the top of the world, with the wind blowing through my hair and the stunning colors in the sky. What a way to end the week.

Your standard array of Eiffel Tower pictures…

On Saturday, I went down to the Louvre with the friends I had made the night before. Since we don’t have our student IDs yet, we couldn’t get in for free unfortunately, so we just admired the glass pyramid and the opulence of the palace before heading on. What I found funny was that there were little pedestals ready for people to take pictures with them holding the glass pyramid. As I walked in, what caught my eye before the pyramid was the hordes of people taking the exact same photo. I found it funny, and somewhat a commentary on our era…

The next stop was pizza on the way to Sacré Cœur. On our walk over to Sacré Cœur, we passed through the rather racy Moulin Rouge district, which we were eager to leave. It was a bonding experience for us, though… Once we made it up to Sacré Cœur, we saw many many street vendors selling very cool things such as handmade swords, books, and one that sold banknotes from around the world. I have a currency wall back at home, and I wanted to add a French Franc to it. I found one of the composer Hector Berlioz, and the design is very cool and eye-catching. It’ll make a great addition to the wall. I also bought a newspaper from September 4, 1939, announcing the start of the war with Germany. Very cool stuff. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the sights from the top of the hill and the sunset at the Arc de Triomphe.

What I bought outside of Sacré Cœur! “Nous sommes en guerre avec l'Allemagne” = “We’re at war with Germany”

Can’t wait for the rest of the week!