-Joyeux Anniversaire?-

It's a bit of an awkward situation when you would have to walk through the dining/living room to leave your room and the house, and there's a birthday party going on out there that you weren't invited to.

Today is Alice's 14th anniversaire, and it has been the occasion I have felt the most cultural exclusion from.  No, I don't know her well enough to be invited to the dinner (which I can smell from my room), but I am living in the same house.  My nicest guess is that I was not invited to spare me from being lost in translation, but it has just made for an awkward evening of sitting in my room and hearing voices I don't recognize through my walls.  This is definitely one of the things they don't cover in "Homestay Orientation."

Otherwise, the day was interesting.  I wandered through French stores I can't afford in the enormous Forum des Halles and unintentionally attracted my first French suitor.  Poor young French boy, assuming we were the same age, and thinking he ever even had a chance.  Yes, I understood his French, but I mostly pretended I couldn't.  And then I continued on my way.  Another instance where not speaking French very well has actually helped me out.  Les Halles were incredibly interesting though, as they were first developed as an underground hallway of markets in the 1100s (I think), and were only torn down and built into a modern, 4 level shopping centre in 1977.  Three of the levels are underground, and the above-ground exterior is all in arching glass tubes.  I assume this is some throwback to the original Halles because those were constructed from iron and glass in the 1850s.  It was odd to see shops so modern in an area I knew had housed hand-made stalls only a century before.

And in the most important news of my day: I bought a pair of mittens for my now permanently red fingers.  They were 1 euro at H&M.  I have to dignify that by saying that European H&M (pronounced osh ee em) is so much more classy than the wimped-out American version, and between its 3 floors had an incredible selection.  Including mittens.  Now I can brave this un-seasonable weather until it returns to normal.  (Smitten)