Day 22 (Paris)

Today we went to the Louvre Museum. There was a bit of chaos as our group got separated. I don't know if you know this...but there are over 10K people that visit the Louvre each day. The likelihood of finding each other is minimal. However, by happy chance, Dr. Mehta decided to take one more look for rest of group before our tour was supposed to start and there they were coming down the escalator. The Louvre is amazing. We saw so many fantastic peices. There was Winged Victory, which is my favorite Hellenistic sculpture, Raft of the Medusa, a Romantic painting by Theodore Gericault, and Oath of the Horatii, by David. Of course we also saw the Mona Lisa which I think is a little over rated. Of all so Da Vinci's work, it's probably one of my least favorites, but for some reason everyone goes gaga over it. Sadly, our tour of the Lourve only lasted about an hour which is absolutely sacrilegious. Luckily, since I'm staying extra, I have a whole day saved to just explore it. After the Louvre, Dr. Mehta had a trip planned to the US Embassy. We met with Jaffar Diab, the Vice Consul. He discussed some of the differences between the US and France, changing US-French relations, and the work that is done at the Embassy. I was in my element. We had lots of time to ask questions. I think I hogged the floor a bit asking about everything from our relationship with Cuba to the power of the UN. They also have an internship program there which I am definitely going to apply for. This visit was wonderful, I learned so much. Our visit went over the time we were allotted, but it was worth missing our next schedule activity, visiting the Orsay Museum. By the time that we got done there would have only been an hour to visit the museum so I decided to skip in so that I could rest a bit before going on a boat ride on the Seine river. The boat ride was a lot of fun. Lauren, Tia, and I sat together on the edge of the boat and giggle and laughed the whole time ("What's that for?...Pirates! What is that for?...You really want to know?...Yes...Pirates!"). The views were spectacular (especially when we got mooned, Tia was blushing for 15 minutes) and we even got to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up, it was gorgeous.