Settling In

So the first full week started. The language placement test, well haven't done something like that since high school. The language intensive course feels like high school but i like it because its very much a review of things that I just haven't gone over in a while, so it's nice to have things like very tenses fresh in my mind.
Had a lovely dinner with Cody the other night in the Latin Quarter. We ended up sitting outside Notre Dame later that evening for a good while just talking. There were very few people which just made it so so nice. I also got to see Elizabeth today! She used to go to DePaul and is actually from Yellow Springs, near Dayton. She's been studying in Bordeaux and is in Paris for the weekend. I ended up spending a lovely afternoon in Montmartre with her, and I hadn't been up there yet. The first sunny day made it perfect to go see Sacre Coeur. We walked around a bunch and ended up having a cafe and just talked. It felt fantastically familiar. Paris is beautiful but being able to meet up with Elizabeth and having Cody around help to hold off the loneliness. and not loneliness as in there's no one here, but loneliness as in missing people who just know me and love me and don't have questions or judgments any more. I was glad to hear Elizabeth may be moving back to Chicago. It was also nice to know that I will very likely see her again and that we may even do a bit of traveling.
Bee. Tee. Dubs. There was apparently supposed to be a strike on the metro. strike? whats strike? i guess since no ones using the metro out of fear of it not working, theres few people on it, its still running just fewer trains and frankly if no one had told me there was a strike i wouldnt have known there was one! But so is France. C'est la vie.
My host family is leaving tomorrow night for a ski vacation until Tuesday. Apparently, they're not the only family doing this. I have a feeling throwing a wild party is out of the question, n'est-ce pas?
Oh yes. The shopping. The soldes. January is sale month here. Like, insane sale month. For fifty euros I purchased: three tops, a pair of shoes, a pair of pants, and a skirt. When typically it would have bought me like the shoes. maybe one of the tops and the skirt. So I am rationalizing clothes shopping by telling myself i won't do much more after the sales because i wont want to. too much money. and the clothes are DAMN cute.
Changed my name to Hélène on fbook and apparently people can't handle it. It's french and the perfect combo of ellen and helen. Deal people.

Hélène