One week down

It's already been a week! In some ways I feel like I'm not nearly as adjusted as I should be--for example, I still cant fall asleep until at least 4 am without a benadryl, and outside of minimal French conversation I'm a jumbled slurring mess. But in other areas--for example, the metro--I'm set.

The CEA staff is great and they've really tried their best to get us all settled into the timezone, culture, etc. With the exception of Friday (which was my placement exam at the Sorbonne) our schedules have been roughly the same everyday.  Catch the metro by 9, by 9:30 we're in the CEA building (which is in an adorable little courtyard with huge doors on a side street and I feel like Madeline every time I walk in), we go through a few hours of workshops, break for lunch, come back for more workshops or tours and whatnot, and then we're free by 4 pm. Or should I say by 16h.
There were 2 main problems with this system:
1) By Wednesday I felt like I hadn't slept in weeks
2) It's dark by 5, so the most sight seeing I've done outside of the CEA-sponsored events has been of restaurants! And store fronts. But I would like to note that I've only spent 14 euros on clothes so far thanks to the holiday sales which are STILL going on (and end everywhere pretty much tomorrow).

Overall though it's been great. I've met some wonderful people and I'm really having fun here. Tomorrow I start classes at CEA, but the Sorbonne doesn't start until February 11, which gives me some nice breather room since this week I will have my days free after 11:30.

Other highlights:
-I received my CEA and Sorbonne ID cards, which allow me to get into all the museums for free. Did you know that if you stood and looked at each item in the Louvre for 10 seconds each, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it would take 4 months to get through?
-Despite one bad experience with a cab driver, which I will go into detail about later, all the French people I've met have been wonderful! Everyone's actually pretty eager to help out, and as long as you attempt to speak French they usually meet you halfway with English.
-Speaking of speaking: every French person I've met has been far better at English than I am at French.  Two of them had never even taken a formal course, and just learned from the tv and visiting the states.*
-This upcoming weekend I'm going to see Kristen!

*I would like to note here though that my grandparents and mother did the same thing, which is AMAZING to me, especially considering I'm going to be enrolled in 10 hours of French a week and living here and still cant fathom being fluent.