What is beauty?

As one friend said to me today: this is 

CRAZY. 

It's not ending! We're going to be doing adventures for a long time! You know? Today we went to the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, tomorrow we're going to Versailles, and then on friday we go to Belgium. 

No big deal.

Except it is  a big deal! We're coming to our 3 week anniversary, even long vacations are ending about this time and if I was on that vacation I would have treasured every day full of the freedom of travel! I think as a survival mechanism I've stopped appreciating everything we do. It was normal to go to the Eiffel tower today, and going to the Palais de Versailles tomorrow will be just another long day trip, meaning sore feet, sheep-herding-style travel, holding pee until we make a group run, and eating lots of carbs because that's all the french eat: that and butter. 

No! No. Here and now I'm appreciating this time for what it is, I want you all to know that. 

SO. Here is what I appreciate--

I took the Metro all by myself to the Notre Dame! Yes, I took Line 5 to Gare de Austerlitz and switched to the C RER train and got of at Sainte Michel and walked across the bridge to the island that the Notre Dame sits on and found my group and breathed in incense during the church service, sang french hymns,  and craned my neck to look up at the beautiful, beautiful stained glass windows high up on the cieling! 

I'm appreciating my classes:

In our Technology class, we learned that Gothic cathedrals are an incredible innovation because unlike the Romanesque-style class preceding them which were made to look strong, heavy, impenetrable with big columns and small windows, the Gothic cathedrals favor "height and light"! They have slim columns  along the walls to make the vaulted ceiling with pointed arches and, because of the thinner walls, are able to have big windows! There's a problem though, the thin walls and small columns supporting the arches can't support much weight, so the walls bend outward unless (dun dundun dunnnn!) they have flying buttresses!! Yes! Flying butresses support the walls, enabling us to experience the light from the stained glass and the magnificence of the huge cathedral. 

I'm appreciating my processing of what we experience:

How do I appreciate art differently as a Christian? What is beauty when looking through the "lens" (comm major motif...) of Christ when looking at art? I think cathedrals are absolutely stunning, God deserves to have such a thing built to glorify his name! But it wasn't, the king of france commissioned it because every great city has to have a great cathedral. God would rather me worship whole-heartedly in the gutter than have thousands of people attend a service with their cameras out the whole time. Or maybe not. How awesome would it be to pack that cathedral with hundreds of people singing praises to him! Our songs would echo and magnify off the big walls as we sing together! Harmonies would combine and twirl all the way up to those high arches! The bells would ring! That, I think, would be the most beautiful thing I could ever be a part of. 

The beauty I see now is broken, partial; maybe something becomes most beautiful when it becomes what it is supposed to be. Think about it: a view is the best when it is uninterrupted by smog or litter, friendship is the best when both people love selflessly, as Jesus did. We become more beautiful when we allow ourselves to be changed by Jesus! We are in a broken world, nothing is as it should be. One day everything will be f i n i s h e d and we will be the most beautiful we can be because we will be made complete in Christ, the way he intended. Ah! I can't wait! 

See? I just processed that. You don't have to read it, but it's definitely going into my art journal. 

I'm appreciating the food: today I had two baguette sandwiches (they're the cheapest thing here...), we've made AMAZING pasta dinners in our apartment! (speaking of apartment, our cleaning lady came today and when she walked in she asked for a coke, (what??) but ok, well, we have juice? She drank it so fast it dribbled all over the tile in the kitchenette, and when we came back... the now dried-and-sticky yellow juice was still there. So weird.)

I'm appreciating the language, I'm learning so much!

I'm appreciating having seen Hugh Jackman walk with his family to get dinner in the Eiffel Tower (300 euros a plate, apparently). I've always thought I would keep my cool when I met someone famous, but no. I got so giddy I could have been a five year old girl about to be adopted by all the Disney princesses plus Mulan. But still, it was awesome. Then the sunset over the city was absolutely stunning, and I was SO glad I went up instead of working on my paper. :)

So artsy...

I'm appreciating our man-neighbor across the street who we named Pierre and we're pretend friends with him. 

I love our group, there really isn't a bad combination of people to be with. 

and... now I must appreciate my night of paper writing--on the US policy of isolationism from 1918-1941 (woo-hoo).

I LOVE YOU!