Masato Sean Goda is a student at Arizona State University and an ISA Featured Blogger. He is currently studying abroad with ISA in Paris, France.
Amidst the delicate rush of taxis, the vibrant laughter, and the surrounding luster, splendorous and lurid against the darkening horizon, she, the Eiffel Tower, stands. Her beauty, pridefully elegant and preposterously magnificent, undoubtedly exceeds all expectations inspired by reveries of months prior. Her glow, pure and invulnerable, radiates deep brilliant gold, captivating the night and transforming the surrounding darkness into a rose white dress which drapes over her, stealing the gaze and adoration of all those present.
Besides me, an elderly man, with head nearly bald, strums the strings of his ancient guitar. His fingers, like dried branches, passionately dance along the instrument, releasing melodies into the air. However vulgar his appearance may be, he too emits light into this world. His music ties one down to the moment.
It is at this moment, precisely at the 20th hour, that everything changes. As if to boast of her own glamour and worth, the Eiffel Tower commences her grand spectacle. She glitters, pouring out all that she is, equally chaotic and systematic. Her once modest dress transcends into a gown of flashing diamonds. It is as if the stars of the universe exist only here as fireflies, under the imprisonment of a sole bell jar, desperately seeking to float once more. Underneath this revolution of luminescence we are reduced to charming silhouettes admiring tirelessly at the irresistible allure of immortal beauty, forever elusive.
Abruptly as she had begun, she stops. The flash of paradise still clear in my mind, I turn my back to her and begin my walk towards the nearest Metro. And I am convinced that Paris indeed is the greatest city in the world. Glancing around, what I see only further supports this statement. Before me lies a sea of euphoria. Streams of people, awed eyes pointed upwards, a myriad of joyful faces. Kaleidoscope vision of reflecting light on the wet surface, two heads under a single umbrella, intertwining hands, linked lips. Songs of harmonized foreign languages blending with the aroma of distant patisseries, the flow of the Seine, the illumination of the street lamps. Everything from the grotesque to the divine exists here, under the watch of the Eiffel Tower, and if you are blessed to have the opportunity to live here, you too become a part of Paris, and thus she becomes a part of you. And years from now, the memories of these moments will have tread past the ripples of diminishing time, and we too will emit light into this world.
The world awaits…discover it.