Neun

Besides the enmodes presentation, this week did not involve much. I finished the 2D model for the powerpoint. There was not much to say other than explaining what was what and the materials being used. We had our pre-departure meeting for Paris which I am super excited for. People overhype Paris but I am keeping realistic expectations of what it is going to be like. I feel like Paris will be very similar to New York City. On Friday, I completely forgot there was another Intercultural Communication Workshop. The enmodes presentation went pretty well in my opinion. The enmodes people really liked our concept of taking inspiration from an existing device. That existing device does something we need to do but on a much smaller scale. We would just need to make some slight modifications and scale it up, then it would be perfect.

The Paris excursion is finally here! We first headed to Colmar which was a small town in north-eastern France. We had to find lunch around the town and we stumbled upon a doner place that served so much food for the price. It was super good and I got a plate with rice and I could not finish it because it also came with bread. We went to the Unterlindin Museum and the Iseheim Alter in Colmar. The Isenheim Alter had a bunch of different art pieces involving Christianity and the plague. The main piece of the museum was of a crucified Jesus with bubonic plague symptoms. Then we headed to Beaune for dinner and the hotel we stayed at for the night. Beaune is known for their burgundy wines so we had some for dinner. This was the first time I tried escargot and it was delicious. In the morning we went to Hotel Dieu which was a hospice after the 100 Years War and the era of the plague. It was very interesting to see how both the rich and poor were treated during a period of such unrest and disease.

I was right about Paris, it was a lot like New York City. From the metro to the proximity of everything and the people, it was very similar to New York City. We first had a tour through Paris with our guide, Julien. Paris is very concentrated with many things to see. We had lunch then it was time for the guided tour at the Le Musee d’Histoire de la Medecine. There were many interesting medical devices in the museum. At night we went up on the Eiffel tower. The next day we had a guided tour at the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa. I am not sure why we could not stay longer in the Louvre. The tour ended after they took us out of the Louvre. I would have liked to stay in the Louvre a bit longer after the tour ended since the museum was so big.