A new year has come, and another month has passed since my last post. In my defense, three weeks were spent on the move in Morocco, and I've been feeling rather lazy about blogging since I got back. However, it's a new year, and there are another seven months before I fly home to Canada, so I'm going to try to be more diligent about updating this blog, if not for the pleasure of the devoted readers, then at least so I'll be able to eventually reread my own entries and remember my year of living and studying in Paris.

It's January in Paris, which means that it's time to go shopping! Sales in France are regulated by the government, and so shops can only markdown items twice a year (in January and July). This concept is totally foreign to anyone coming from North America, where stuff often goes on sale almost as soon as it hits the shelves, but for the French, everyone knows that this is the period when you get your shopping done. In fact, French people take the sales period so seriously that a lot of people actually take vacation days during the période des soldes, in order to spend an entire day bargain hunting. Needless to say, the stores are basically jam packed every day for six weeks as the sales-starved French (and any diehard shoppers who come to France specifically for the sales) duke it out over half-priced towels, toys, clothing and shoes. Seeing as the poor Canadian dollar is currently being battered by the overvalued Euro, I haven't joined the consuming masses (as tempting as it is to jump in), but I've walked past several shops (Galleries Lafayette comes to mind...) that have reminded me of the Tokyo subway at rush hour, minus the presence of uniformed Japanese men (white gloves and all!) literally pushing people into the the car in order to close the doors.