I never knew this was here!!

Today I decided to go to the Louvre because I haven't been there in a while. Knowing that it's Monday, and a lot of museums are closed, I knew that there were going to be a lot of people at the Louvre. However, I figured that if I stayed as far as possible from anything near The Mona Lisa I may be able to avoid the crowds. I've noticed that I get really nervous in big crowds. I'm not really sure why, but really since being here it's become a problem. I wouldn't really call it a problem, I just really don't like it. Anyways, I was standing in line waiting to get my purse scanned and the group of people that were behind me must have been dying to get in because they told me the line was moving a bunch of times. I wanted to turn around and tell them to back off because the lady in front of me hardly even moved, I don't need to stand on top of her. I got through security and went straight to the Richelieu wing. I have been in all of the wings of the Louvre (there are 3) but I have never started out in this wing. It is less crowded than the Denon wing, which is where The Mona Lisa is located. I walked in and went to this open court yard that used to be outside because I read that a glass roof was put on a while ago. There were a lot of statues in there, a lot of Diane and her animals. Google her. I sat down for a while because when I go to the Louvre I like to people watch. This guy came up to me after I was sitting for a few minutes and asked me if I spoke English and asked if I would take a picture of him. I took his picture next to this statue...not sure what it was. There were about 5 other people who took their pictures by it before him so maybe he thought it was important or something. I've noticed that in big museums like the Louvre, people all tend to flock to where other people go. If a bunch of people are looking at one painting, anyone who passes by either stops to look at the painting to see why so many people are looking at it. If you don't believe me, the next time you go to a museum watch the people...it's quite interesting.

I ended up taking some pictures of the stautes that I thought were cool looking and also took some photos of random people in the museum. It's cool to look at the way other people explore a museum. I wandered around the wing some more and ended up in the apartments of Napoleon III. I had no idea these were even here!! They were so cool. There was this giant room that had 3 HUGE chandeliers in it and the ceiling was covered in paintings, flying angel babies, and gold...you know, just your typical everyday ceiling. It reminded me of a tea room or something. I could totally imagine some pretentious king (like Napoleon) walking around demanding his tea with 2 sugars or something. There was this older group of Americans, they must have been friends or something, and one of the women goes, "I can't imagine what their electricity bill must have been back then with all of these chandeliers!!" The other woman responds, "I don't think they had electricity back then." They confered with their respected husbands and they told them they would have used candles back then. It was pretty funny.

I left the wing and stood above the ground floor for a while just watching all the people standing under the pyramid or in the incredibly long lines to get tickets. There were a bunch of guided tours there and the people are so funny because they always carry something and wave it around like a crazy person so their huge group can follow them. Today, this Asian woman was holding a gaint cone she made out of a bunch of maps of the museum...what a waste of paper. I left the museum after that because I was tired of watching people. On the metro coming back to the apartment, this emo girl was holding her nose the entire time because something smelled bad to her. I didn't smell anything and it wasn't me, so I don't know what her problem was.

I found out that I can apply to be a part of this French Honors Society at U of I but I'm not sure if I really can though because they want to know what my gpa for my French grades and my overall gpa was for this semester. However, I really don't know what it is because I only have French grades, and they are a lot different than the grades at U of I. I emailed the head of the French department so we'll see what she says. I also figured out that I can watch all the events that I am missing of the Olympics because of the crappy time difference between Paris and Vancouver on this website called Ninjavideo. It's awesome. They have Dexter too. Today I watched the Men's freestyle Mogels. Congrats Canada on winning your first medal on home soil....hahah. After hosting the games 3 times, last night was the first time they won on their own land. That's sad Canada. Snowboarding starts tonight, even though it's snowboard cross, which Shaun White doesn't do, but I'll still watch it tomorrow if it's on too late here, which it probably is.

A bientot