Glory to France, Peace to the World

From a topic I had with Nina and Jacob on Discord: On my flight from Boston to Paris, I was listening to music and it suddenly went to "We Are the World." It was around 2 AM and I was reading a note published by someone. It was just an emo moment and I could only pray for humanity to keep sanity.

Today we visited Versailles Palace and the Eiffel Tower. The Palace of Versailles is really big and impressive, and I got to see the places that we talked about in AP Euro, like the Hall of Mirrors. There was also a room of all glorious wars in the history of France to “bring all glory to France.” And surprisingly, Henry IV entering Paris and the US War of Independence were included as paintings. I guess they still count as glorious wars.

The public transport feels a little better than Boston. It is still slow, and it is still 10 minutes late (this is the only train that we have taken, so currently Paris subways are 100% late). But there are two floors and the train is pretty clean and neat. All announcements are in French and my dad called that “cultural confidence.”

I kind of like Marie Antoinette in a way that she didn’t really want to be a queen, though she wanted to enjoy life like a queen. She would be an amazing queen to hang out with. I know that sounds weird, but you can feel that in Versailles. So maybe tomorrow I should go to the Conciergerie, the French Revolution prison that accommodated her before she was beheaded?

I thought Chinese were the only notoriously impolite tourists in other countries, but I kind of found Americans were as well. When I was walking in the Bosquet with my dad, I heard a really loud "f*** bikes" from behind and everyone was turning back to look at that guy.

The Eiffel Tower and Seine River looked so great. When the lights are on, it just has such a great romantic vibe and I also saw a new couple get engaged. It’s definitely better than prom in an aquarium, where you are surrounded by animals.

Also, today is Pi Day—the day when MIT released their decision at 6:28 PM, and when Albert Einstein was born and Hawking passed away. Happy Pi Day! I only had a pancake.

I think I have been writing less and less and I guess maybe I'm just tired. My personal journal is usually much shorter, so see you tomorrow.