glass pyramids and pickpockets

Yesterday we started off with a nice little meeting on safety and health here in Paris. We were lectured for about an hour on the dangers of being inebriated in public since we're loud and obnoxious by nature just from being Americans. The next hour was dedicated to warnings of the interworkings of the pickpocketing world, how they work exactly, who they target, how YOU can be a victim ever-so-easily.

We were then taken to the area most trafficked by pickpoketers, to test what we learned that morning: The Louvre. Tourist central. Pickpocket heaven. They threw us to the sharks, but this is a happy story I tell from France, and I can attest to the fact that we all came out alive.

We were sheparded around the Louvre by one of the professors we will be taking classes from. He was very informative, and took us to all the "hidden treasures" of the museum. We didn't see the Monna Lisa (it has two n's, I never knew that until I saw the for it sign yesterday), and we didn't see any of the other main pieces, but I think we're all planning on returning to the Louvre at some point so it wasn't an issue. The professor told us about the history of the museum, how it was built, destroyed, rebuilt, how most of the pieces came to it (lots came from when France seized the Church's works of art and gave them to the people through the museum, and he picked a few rooms and sculptures and gave detailed descriptions of the symbolism in the piece and how it changed or was a result of a change in France. I'm taking his class this semester, Romantisme, which I predict from that tour will be very interesting, but a lot of information to sort through in a short amount of time. It'll be good though.

We were free to wander around Paris after our little tour of the Louvre, so a little group of us decided to walk down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. It was a long, commercial walk. It looked like Michigan Avenue. I saw the Louis Vuitton store (but dared not step in until after my Style and Fashion class this semester). Regardless of the overwhelmingly commercial atmosphere, there was this overlying charm and novelty of actually walking from the Louvre through the Jardin des Tuileries to the Arc. I feel like a tourist.

Paris, je t'aime.

We've made it to Paris safe and sound! We're staying at a fine little place called the FIAP. It's most enticing attributes are: shady internet, a bar that closes whenever the guy behind it needs to use the restroom, a plethora of noisy young travellers, pink hallways, bunkbeds, and showers with no curtains. It's a nice little intro to the city, but I'm ready for classes and my host lady and her little dog (hopefully it looks like a cat).

I slept for 18 hours last night at a darling little hotel called L'Hotel Monte Carlo (which had statues of cats everywhere), and I taxied my way to the group at this dorm thing around noon. We checked in our rooms and headed out on the town for some exploring. From our temporary home here in the 14th we walked all the way to the 5th, thinking anything towards the Champs Elysees would be interesting. Oh how we were right. We stumbled upon the cutest side streets with even cuter shops and restaurants. A MacDo was found on a corner with free WiFi (yay!) and we even ran into a Starbucks. Luckily the little french bakeries and cafe's outnumbered anything American, so we can all breathe easy. The coolest sights to be seen so far have been the graffiti. I have many-a-pictures, so don't you worry dear reader, they will be posted in... 5 months :) I'm running out of internet time here, but tomorrow the plans are: THE LOUVRE! Whoooohooo!