Day 29- Friday 24 June

Boleeeegherghug, tiiiiired, tiredtired, tired. Ti-red, redtitiredgah. And my feet hurt. Backpackers must work themselves up for months and months if they walk so much and don't have to chop off their toes regularly. Went to class today, did fine on the exam, no comment on the seafood so I'm going to have to step it up and ERIN RULES THE WORLD! And the weather was great again. Most of the day was spent in the Louvre, actually, and after that just walking about my favorite touristy bits in the area and getting accosted by gypsies. It's because I hadn't followed my rule of threes today and looked vaguely American: A nice-ish anything counts as one, but one object that is super-nice can never count as two. Various repugnant items [mostly certain kinds of shoes, but also backpacks] immediately disqualify you from blending in, and this is when the gypsies will come and get you. So today I was wearing: Dark purple shirt that is Tori's [U-collar, plain, fitted, no big deal], jeans [dark, straight leg, no bleaching], sandals [white with multiple straps I actually picked up in the dorm kitchen, no signs of infectious diseases yet], messenger bag [black, nondescript]. So the shirt is one, pants count as one, bag is null and shoes are almost one but nothing outstanding, ergo are null, total is two= American OR French who doesn't care enough OR more likely European non-French, BUT, since I was in the Louvre/Tuileries/St Germain area= tourist, no duh= gypsies. I needed another significant clothing item to pass better, like a decent jacket or scarf, but it was hot today and it wasn't happening. I am going to have such a serious Nutella withdrawal. And Orangina. It's like soda, but with cellulose.

The Louvre was weird, but I really enjoyed their large display of sarcophagi- some of their larger objects had cute plaques dating from the early twentieth century saying that their respective items were conceded to the French government, and so on and so forth. That, plus the three thousand-year-old obelisk in Place des Concordes plus whatever's in Britain= Europeans are bloodthirsty kleptos. Back to the sarcophagi, in some of them you could see stains from where the bodies had lain, and one tourist asked a very insightful question and wondered where all the mummies were. I don't know. There was one on display, and you could get very close and see how the face was specially wrapped and fingers done individually, but that was it. And I had no idea the ancient Egyptians were so manic about mummification; in one room there were mummified cats, doi, but also ibises, crocodiles [multiple], goat heads [like, three], fish [many a fish] and whatever else I've forgotten. But fish, wow, that's just weird, and they were totally pathetic-looking, and some of them were in little fish sarcophagi, and the ibises were sealed in clay tubes some of them, and some of the cats looked like stuffed animals, their limbs wrapped individually and sticking out at odd angles. And they had a feast they found in one tomb on display, with bread and fruit, and they had a whole chapel [that was my translation] set up with partially-colored carvings and hieroglyphics that had been plundered and shipped over in pieces, and that one had a plaque, too, about benevolent bequeathence or whatever, and I had a great time in Egypt. Also saw Roman/Greek/Etruscan sculpture, ancient Iranian friezes, more Egyptian paraphernalia, and then the museum actually closed on me. The above covered maybe 30%-ish of the museum and took over four hours, scariness. Afterward, like I mentioned, I hung out in front of the pyramid and cooled my feet in the fountain, and because the metro was like a world record for the most marshmallows stuffed into one mouth I didn't go anywhere else, really, just walked around, took photos. I found out that the bank opposite the Notre Dame and a bit west is full of pet stores, a whole block of them right on the water, and I haven't seen any anywhere else in the city, and there was also a Ferris wheel set up in the Tuileries, and just things like that. This is also when the gypsies came after me.

Weird things about Paris: Quite a bit of the Louvre is underground, too, and you know that's where they keep all of their extra stuff. And I mentioned restaurants usually put their water closets underground? Still weirds me out.