STRIKES galore!

03.05.09

I officially am in love with my host brothers. They are sooo funny and they are with me for the NEXT TWO weeks! At first I misunderstood Vero and thought she said they would only be with us for three more weeks total, but she meant for these next few weeks! Last night Arthur made me dinner, Vero was out with friends and Virgile had rugby practice. We chatted about our days and I told him about one of my teachers that day that was extremely mean. My friend Carley had her expose (she was the first in the class to go) and she had everything prepared like the teacher had asked. When Carley began presenting our teaching kept interrupting her and telling her blatantly that her presentation was horrible and kept reminding the class this is NOT what you are supposed to do. She yelled at her for not “renting a projector”, which she never told her to do. We complained about this teacher to our program director, the sweetest older French man I have ever met. He slicks back his hair, is always laughing with us, and he teaches my favorite class Culture et Patrimoine! He told us that other students have been having problems with her as well, so he would have a talk with her directly. Arthur also told me how him and Virgile snuck into their dad’s house the other weekend since he was on vacation. It is cute how they trust me with their little secrets; I love having two little brothers of my own.

Lately, they love to test me on music. Arthur will put all of his music on shuffle, and make me guess who it is. We have a very similar taste in music, so I knew a majority of the songs he played (minus the French ones). He was impressed with me and bragged to Vero that I know A LOT, so cute. We shared some funny YouTube videos with each other and just hung out.

So funny thing as I am writing this in the lovely MacDo, there are TONS of people lining the streets and the main center. I can’t quite tell what this strike is for (once again) BUT they have tons of signs of Sarkozy and there are tons of banners lining the streets. There is also currently a strike going on at our school, Paul Valery. The teachers were striking first, and now the students are striking back. It doesn’t affect me, since I am in the Foreign Institute, but some other Americans who are taking classes with French students are affected. Today as I walked to class, there were chairs, desks, anything the students could get their hands on to block the entrances to the doors and all stairways! It is actually quite funny, because in most cases, they can obviously be moved, but no students show up to class! This has been a problem for half of our program, since there is a possibility they can’t get credit for their classes. My friends’ roommate Joan has not had one of her classes since the end of January! In replace of their classes, they may have to write a 10 page paper before spring break, so hopefully things will work themselves out soon.

Tomorrow I leave for BARCELONA to see my besties (Katie, Kristen, and Tara)! I am beyond excited and can’t wait to see them all! Tonight, my friends and I are going to start planning spring break! Maddie, Nick, and I all want to travel through Italy for the first week, and explore Greece for the next! Our plan as of now is to go to Milan, then to Venice, then Florence and then Rome for the first week. Then a week in Greece where we really want to visit Athens and Santorini! Three other girls want to meet us there to, after they are done exploring Austria and Germany. We want to do a little more research, but want to try to get things booked by next week, to secure everything! I am very excited to explore things outside of France, it should be great!

Also, at the last minute, my friends Lexi, Lily, and Mare and myself, are going to Paris the weekend of the 20th! Mare’s entire family is coming to visit and she doesn’t want to travel alone, so we all decided to tag along! I can’t WAIT to visit Paris! I’m going when my parents come in the spring, but I figure I should try and make it there more than once! We booked tickets for early Friday morning, so we will get there around 1130ish! Next weekend, I am staying here and but we may possibly do another daytrip. Since it is Minnesota’s spring break, a lot of people actually have friends/boyfriends/family coming to visit! I’m excited to meet everyone’s visitors!
I will end with a few things about France that amuse me:

1) DOGS are allowed basically everywhere and there is literally dog poop everywhere in sight. Thankfully I have only managed to step in some once.
2) Black is the color here and tights are a must. The other day (biking to the beach) I had the bright idea to wear shorts, since I thought it would be really warm. I predicted the weather wrong, and all the frenchies were laughing/commenting on my shorts.
3) American music is HUGE here, but it is definitely a little behind. The artists we heard this past Tuesday: Phil Colins, Hanson, and Will Smith.
4) The thought of using dryers here is unheard of. My last load of laundry (underwear and bras) was left to dry in the living room for all to see.

CHAO my loves!