May Day

Today's a national holiday in France (fête du travail - labour day) which means absolutely nothing is open, the buses and trams aren't running, and of course there's a protest at the Comédie. Now, I'm hiding in my room trying to finish my last paper, but I know of this because people have come around knocking on all the doors in the dormitory handing out fliers and encouraging everyone to "venez nombreux" in support of whatever cause they were fighting for this time. I'm down with "fighting for your rights" and all, but it seems to me the more often you do so the less effective it probably becomes. What do I know, though. I'm just another frustrated foreign student who's simply hoping she can take her German test next week since she's leaving a few days later for good.

Can hardly believe that - 10 days until I depart France, 5 more and then I'm home. Time has flown by, but it hasn't seemed to accomplish much. Speaking of which...

back in the saddle

Since Sam's spending her summer in Florida, I went up to Birmingham for one last weekend of mayhem in order to spend a little more time with her. Saw a few movies, ate some good food, went back to Cadbury World... We planned on hitting up a scifi convention but it was just too far from the city centre, such is life. Thus was my sixth trip into the UK this semester, my last real one, and probably a good thing the way the immigration people have started to get suspicious of me... Hehe. Spent Thursday night in Stansted airport before heading by train to Brum, staying in the coffee shop which was thankfully open 24 hours. Coming home was a Sunday night flight from Birmingham to Marseille, where I decided to splurge on a hotel near the airport since my train for Montpellier wasn't until eight this morning and I got in by 10... A good night's sleep is never unappreciated before class.

Except there was no class. Sometime over the weekend the strikers had come back and reblocked the campus; I waited for 20 minutes outside a barricaded classroom for a Prof who never showed up. I just got word my lit test for Wednesday was cancelled, so I'm writing another four page paper after all. And I have no idea what's going to happen with German, and if I should even bother getting up tomorrow... At least this is almost over. Being here with no class at least means I can see everything I missed in Montpellier whilst I was busy travelling everywhere else in Europe. So worth it, though.

Luttons! Pour nos droits!

After several weeks of classes cancelled due to strike, a few weeks ago students blocked the campus. This basically meant the doors to all of the building except the library, cafeteria, and institute for foreign students were blocked by chairs, tables, and angry students. Every general assembly since then has voted to keep the blockage going. I can't claim to completely understand the situation, but it does seem like they're looking at things a bit out of proportion. However, I'm not French, these reforms aren't affecting my schooling beyond this semester.

This strike has, however, deeply affected my current semester. We haven't had classes except the ones run by our programme, so obviously there's not much to be graded on. To make up for this, they've gone through a couple of steps, first having us write 8-10 page papers for each integrated class we have (I have three) and then making us attend additional lectures arranged for American students so we have "something to do". Uh, what? Most of these have nothing to do with what we're not studying, and honestly the two I've been to so far have not been informative at all - one was basic stuff I learnt in linguistics and another similar to an intro journalism class I took. Neither are related to any classes I have here. And the papers? Well, my literature professor still expects us to do a dissertation, and luckily if I stretch it to eight pages it will count for that one. The fact that we still mostly have our translations class (the professors weren't ever on strike, only missed for the blockage) and that it's nearly impossible to write eight pages about beginning German means that it will be the only one I have to write, which is a relief. Even though I have fewer classes, I still feel overwhelmed with what I have to do. I know travelling so much probably doesn't help, but I made these arrangements before I knew there would be a strike of this magnitude and honestly I thought the classes as they were at the start would be pretty manageable. So I won't change any of my plans, but I just have to be more serious about using my time during the week for studying. I think I can handle it. In any case, we have to turn in the papers before spring break, so it won't be hanging over my head the whole time. Good.

There apparently will be another general strike on Thursday, which for me only means that bus and tram services will be severely disrupted, but seeing as I have a grammar class and the second half of the linguistics lecture to go to, I'm not really bothered. Just hope I don't get caught up in any protesting. As much as I like France, I'm starting to think I'll never really adjust to the French way of life. Oh well, just another experience to add to the backlog that defines this crazy, crazy person I call me.

University Strike

I mentioned the strike yesterday, but today I find it in full force. The professors are upset over changes being made by the French President to the public university system, so they've voted to strike. The campus was filled with signs declaring it "en grève", on strike. There were gatherings and demonstrations, including a large one I sort of ran into whilst heading toward the Comédie...

This large group managed to disrupt bus and tram service for a little while. Since I'm still exhausted from my ordeal in London, it was nice to have an extra day off - though for me it meant no classes this week at all!

En grève

If there's one thing the French like, it's strikes. Instead of merely complaining when things go bad, they go out and demonstrate their impatience with the government by skipping school and work to gather and show their solidarity with one another and demand change. Today there's a sort of nationwide general strike, at it's worst in Paris, but it's affecting us in Montpellier too. The entrances to the University were filled with people handing out pamphlets urging us to go to the demonstrations. I had someone knock on my dorm room door last night asking me to participate (I can't, as I'm pretty sure it's against a lot of rules.) My class this morning had only 6 of about 20 people show up, since the tram system is also affected by the strike and most of the people living off campus had too many difficulties in getting here. While this strike is only for today protesting the state of the economy, there are rumours that starting next week there could be a professor's strike. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, since I did come here for school... I'd hate to lose out on that experience, but then, as my lit professor said "for all of you foreign students: welcome to France!"