Strike!

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Well my last week of work didn’t involve much work! My students were on strike - it was really bizarre. I arrived on Monday, and they’d blockaded the doors with wheelie-bins and the metal gates they have around construction sites. They even had a banner with a slogan: “Sarko ta femme est bonne mais pas ta reforme”! The teachers were shocked by that, but otherwise apparently it’s a yearly event, the week before one of the holidays. It was very odd. The first day I stayed for about half an hour in the staff room, and then just went home! I couldn’t help laughing at the students though, it’s so strange to see lycéens, even if some of them are in their 20s, on strike!
So instead of working I went to the cinema and saw Despicable Me - but in French. It’s much better to see animated films not in the original language, the dubbing isn’t painful like it is with actual actors. It was great, very cute and funny. Someone should take Joanna to see it!
That night Sarah and I went to Shakespeare and Company to hear the writers of the Jilted Generation talk about it. It was really interesting (even though we were outside because there weren’t enough seats inside), and they were so passionate about it. The book is basically an explanation of how the baby boomers and the 60s culture that gave us lots of welfare reforms (good thing) also screwed over our generation in terms of affordable, stable housing and jobs (bad thing). I bought the book and got it signed - I’m going to read it on my bus later!
Tuesday was the same - I went in, at 9am, past the blockade (no-one tried to stop me, though) and half an hour later left again! So I went to the library, exchanged my books (George Sand has a book of fairy tales!) and came home to read them before my language class. They’ve gotten a little better, but they’re still kind of boring - but I am revising grammar that I don’t use correctly in everyday speech, so that’s good.
That night I got an email from the rectorat, who are in charge of education in Paris, saying I needed o send them a photocopy of my passport and a signed form by email the next day. I had a massive panic, because I don’t have access to a printer/scanner, but in the end on Wednesday morning I just went in with my passport and they did it there, which was fine.
After that I met up with Anna the Canadian assistant and one of her friends from home who was visiting. We went over near the Museum of Modern Art and had a really nice lunch in a random cafe, it was great! Anna sounds like she’s having a tough time at work, though, she’s in a primary school and the workload is completely different, it’s seems really unfair! she was having a nice day off, though, so that was good. We walked up to the museum, but there was a huge queue so we just wandered around the foyer a little, and then went over to the FREEZING cold Arc de Triomphe. It’s really expensive to go up! And it was far too cold to be even more exposed, so we just looked around the bottom before heading home. That night I just chilled out because...
...on Thursday, my early day, I still had to go into work. I was all prepared for the strike, though, and got up half an hour later, didn’t bother with breakfast, just got up and dressed and went to work, fully expecting to be back in bed at 8:30am. However - I had classes! Worst surprise ever. So I taught two halves of a BTS class, who explained that they could only take so many days off or they would fail their exams - rather missing the point of a strike, but never mind! Luckily my sécondes were skiving because they were about to leave on a trip, so I only had two classes instead of 3. I came home and napped after that!
After my language class I met up with the girls from the class I used to be in, and we went to an Australian bar - not really a place to talk, but we managed it, just about. It was great fun, even if we did spend a lot of time laughing at everyone else who was partying away on a Thursday!
Yesterday I was all prepared to teach for 4 hours - I got up much earlier than I usually would have, planned my lessons, had a bath - and arrived to find the biggest blockade yet! Karma, obviously...and there were people blocking the teachers’ entrance too, for the first time, but after someone told them I was a teacher they let me in. Again, I left within half an hour! That was a much better surprise. I came home and cleaned the apartment at a very leisurely pace, so I wouldn’t have to get up for it this morning. I also had a very unexciting lunch made up of whatever I had left in the cupboards: rice, sausages and OJ  And I talked to Mum for ages, she successfully made me very angry about the spending review - I’m glad there are protests planned! (Although of course they’re only front page news on the BBC when they’re across the UK, when it was just Edinburgh they didn’t get much of a mention.) I also got some shopping done - my lunch for today, presents for Oxford people who have birthdays, and cheddar cheese!! That was a very exciting find.
Sarah and I had our (now regular, seeing as we’ve done it more than once...) trip to the Louvre. This time we sampled the Italian paintings, very irreverently, and Starbucks of course! Then we came back to mine to use up the rest of my food: a courgette and a LOT of beans! But we did that, and I have leftovers to freeze, hooray.
This morning I woke up much earlier than planned, hence why I have time to write this, and had my lovely indulgent breakfast from the bakery yesterday: croissants and a pain au raisin, with tea of course. I’ve just been packing and triple-checking that I have my passport, really - I’m paranoid that I’ll forget it because I’m taking the bus and it just doesn’t seem like an international trip!
Anyway, I’m leaving at about quarter to 1pm, far too early - I have to be at the bus station at half past, and it definitely won’t take more than half an hour (I’m guessing 20 minutes) - I did most of the trip when I went to the rectorat, and 15 might be more like it! But I’m going to be prepared...I have a magazine, a novel, my ipod, and the Jilted Generation to amuse me for the 7 hours it’ll take me to get to London - I can get the Saturday Guardian for the train to Oxford! I’m hoping I’ll get there on time, but there are go-slows on the motorways so who knows.
I probably won’t be able to write for another week or so. Lots of love!

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