Paris has been interesting. I don't like it nearly as much as I thought I would, I think in part because I loved London so much. There's nothing in particular that I don't like about it, it simply doesn't quite feel right to me. It's beautiful though. The art is amazing.

Sunday, when I got here, I basically just waited at the Hostel all day. I was too tired really to do anything, so I sort of just dozed in the lobby for a few hours. This hostel is right along the Bassin de la Villette, a beautiful canal. The room that I've been staying is at the edge of the building and has a huge window, so every day at Sunset there's a beautiful veiw of the sun reflecting off of the water. It's wonderful. I walked along the canal a bit, and finally I was able to get a hold of Magda, my cousin in Paris. We'd been e-mailing back and forth all day, and eventually I actually went over to their flat in the south of Paris for drinks. After that she and her husband Pierre took me out to dinner. It was really great to see her, since the last time I was 14 years old! It was nice also to be able to really talk to Pierre for the first time, since it's always different when you're a young teenager. We went to a very nice restaraunt in their neigborhood, and I went home to sleep. In the hostel, there were only two other people in my dorm, both girls. One is 29 (she's still here, not particularly friendly), and the other was 19. She was only there for a night, but it was really interesting to talk to her. She's an art history major, so she explained to me a lot about sculpture that I didn't understand as far as balance and engineering. She told me that when you see a Roman copy of a Greek sculpture, there's almost always a stump holding it up somewhere, because the Romans weren't as good at balance.

All of this came in very handy on Monday, when I spent the day at the Louvre. That day I stayed almost completely in the sculpture section. It took me a few hours to get through French sculpture, and then I moved on to Greek and Roman. Unfortunately, a good portion of the Greek sculpture is closed right now, probably because it's not tourist season. It was interesting though to see the way French sculpture has changed. I think their collection went back to the 15th centure, and they were really quite terrible at balance then. By the time the collection got up to the 19th century, it was unbelievable. There was one piece of a boy dancing, his arms out flung, one foot in the air, and leaning on the front of his foot. I couldn't imagine being able to balance something like that when I thought of it. There was another interesting piece of a Greek Titan laying dead on the ground after he had been cast from the heavens. It was small, but very powerful. As far as Greek/Roman sculpture, they certainly do have their masterpieces. I don't remember the names, but all of them are very famous. Winged Victory was definitely my favorite of them all though--I think that the only word to really describe that piece is "awe." I also made my way up to some of the Italian paintings, but the museum closed before I got very far.

Tuesday the Louvre is closed, so I had a very touristy day. I went to the top of the Eifell Tower and to Notre Dame. The Eiffel tower was kind of a dissappointment. I somehow expected it to be a little more romantic, I suppose. It's not as beautiful in real life as it is in pictures, and mostly I was just cold. Notre Dame, on the other hand, was really beautiful, but depressing. It really reminded me of the Biblical scene where Jesus casts out the merchants from the temple (I think I saw a painting of that scene the day before). There were signs everywhere saying "No Flash Photography" and "Please be quiet, this is a holy place." Still, people were lining up to take pictures of the alter, and talking just completely conversationally, as if they were going for a stroll in the park. The priests were shushing everyone, but really to no avail. I'm not Christian, of course, but still, it seemed very wrong. It seems like so many people here, all around Paris and especially in the Louvre, are not so much looking at things as they are as much as what would make a good picture. They're recording the moment at the cost of living it, which seems sad to me. These things are never as beautiful in a picture as they are in person, no matter how wonderful of a picture it is. At Winged Victory, that's all that people were doing. I didn't see a single person really just LOOKING at it, taking it in at all.

Wednesday, I was back to the Louvre. I did all of the paintings that I hadn't seen on Monday. It took me all day. The Da Vinci's were really amazing, although the Mona Lisa was also sort of depressing. You can only walk up to about 10 feet from the painting, so it's difficult to really inspect it, or get a feel for it. It's also so crowded that to see it from different angles is very difficult. The French painting was beautiful, and the Deutch painting especially. Of course, I fell for Rembrantd again. They had a few really minor self-portraits, not really that impressive, but some of the other paintings were amazing. There was one of a woman having her feet washed I think, really beautiful. It's so rare for any artist to go as deep as he did.

Yesterday, Thursday, I went to the Orsay Museum. I'm not a huge fan of Impressionism, so I didn't enjoy it that much. They do, however, have the original of the Monet painting that's hung up above my desk. It's better in person, and still the only Monet painting that I really really love. They had 1 or 2 really impressive Cezanne paintings, although I found most of his work really quite boring. Apparently Rilke considered Cezanne to be his foremost artistic influence, which I found really surprising. I have a book on it at home that I'll have to get to one of these days. The really impressive aspect of the museum, to me, was the sculpture. They had absolutely the best sculpture I've ever seen, even better than the Louvre. There was one of a naked woman sleeping, and the way her body was contorted was just fascinating. I simply can't imagine being that estute in physical detail. There was another of Eve's temptation, a very interesting subject. There are several paintings depicting Eve corrupting Adam, but very few showing Eve's experience. She was huddled up against a stump, the apple on the ground beside her and she had her face in her arms, crying. Wrapped around the stump was the satanic serpent. It was really beatiful, and really very perfect. There are 2 men from Brazil in my dorm (they came separately, never met each other before). Last night we all went to a pub together, also with an American from our room. The American was very boring, but the Brazillians are very interesting. One is a journalist, here to cover some convention. He actually met the Governator earlier this week. The other doesn't speak English very well, but he's been to Disneyworld in Florida 4 times! He said it was his dream as a child, but his family never had enough money, so when he grew up he kept wanting to go back.

Today I haven't done much of anything. I spent quite a bit of time going back and forth from train stations, trying to figure out when I'm leaving tomorrow. I finally got my ticket reserved, and it turns out I'm leaving tomorrow night, which gives me tomorrow during the day to make it over to the modern art museum. I think they have a good Picasso collection there, and probably Dali as well, but I'm bracing myself for some bad works. Apparently the main exhibit that is currently in the museum is called "The Void." The whole exhibit is just 9 empty rooms, one after another. I'll try to be open minded as best I can. Unfortunately, I think in this situation my best is not very good.

I'm excited about going to Venice, but nervous. The train station is several miles from the Hostel, and I think I'm going to walk it, since I have all day. It will give me some good time to just see the city, which is really why I'm there. I'm not sure what kind of computer access I'll have there... apparently the hostel isn't very nice. The reviews say it's sort of mediocre, but it's really the only hostel in Venice. They have B&B's and things, but they're expensive. Since I'm spending the night on the train, I'm saving some money by not having to be in a hostel that night. It's actually quite expensive in Venice. There's a man from Florence in my dorm, and apparently it's much cheaper there.

I've really been homesick the last few days. I didn't expect that at all. I miss being able to nest somewhere, whereas here as soon as I settle in, I have to leave. It's also been hard to be away from Jane for so long; we've really gotten used to seeing each other regularly.

On a comical note, in Portland, I traded my roommate David 50 dollars for 50 euros that he had leftover from Ireland. I went to use it in a pub yesterday, and apparently it was a counterfeit. He wouldn't take it. He took my other fifty euro bill though. I'm a little skeptical as to if that's true though, because I used it at the train station today, which I would think would be more savvy to those things.

This afternoon I'm supposed to see Natalie, a woman from Oregon House that's a good friend of Hillary, who I stayed with in London. She was in London the first two days that I was, so I saw her there quite a bit. She lives here, so it will be nice to see the city more from her perspective.