Solidarity, solidarity. Solidarity forever!

I’m starting to get fed up with this constant lack of public transportation. 

First strike = “hmmm well we don’t have strikes like this in the U.S. It’s pretty interesting.” 

Second strike = “Well this is annoying, but at least I got lucky enough to have a bus at the opportune moment.” 

. . . . . . .

Sixth strike = “Dear France, please stop striking.” 

So today there was another strike, surprise surprise. The thing that was different about today was that people blocked the roads. Usually during a strike there are some drivers who will go to work, so buses will come every so often. Today, even if they wanted to drive, they couldn’t. Unfortunately, I was not well informed. I got to the bus stop around 8:10 as usual. I stood  for a few minutes, more people came, we all waited. A lady walked by and said that there were no buses because the streets were blocked. It was 8:15. My class starts at 8:30 and it was a 40 minute walk to school. We are penalized if we are late. Therefore, I ran. About seven minutes away from school it started to rain. Lucky me. So I got to school soaked and out of breath – but only four minutes late! Sprinting up the stairs, I saw a classmate who gave me frustrating news. The teacher had just called and would not be coming to school due to her inability to take the bus. Therefore, class was cancelled. Fortunately, some other classmates that I was supposed to do a project were at school, so we worked on that instead. While we were working on it, there was music blasting in the hall…basically a party in the school at 9 am. Pretty amusing. So welcome to Normandy…rain and strikes that pop up out of nowhere. 

I was working on the project in the computer lab with two girls from Japan and we were speaking French. A girl was STARING us down from across the room. No doubt because our French was less than perfect. It is SO weird to be considered the “foreigner.” Also, in class the other day my teacher asked a question about the United States and no one spoke. I realized that I was the only American in the class. Also a weird feeling. Anywho, good thing I was there…I was able to share the American perspective of the “handshake.” Apparently in China, you should shake hands kind of limply. Well as we Americans all know, in business it is important to always have a firm handshake. So if you meet a Chinese person and they have a weak handshake, don’t judge them by it! There, a weak handshake does not necessarily indicate a weak character. Something I also learned was that in China when someone greets you, they might say “have you eaten yet today?” But what that really means is, “how are you doing?” If you answer that you are hungry, it is considered quite rude! Ohhhh culturally differences. 

It is surprising how much I am learning about American culture, HERE in FRANCE. The questions and topics that come up in class make me question why things are the way they are in the U.S. I expected to learn a lot about France and other cultures around the world, but never did I expect to learn so much about my own culture. It’s extremely interesting to hear people’s perceptions, because it makes me think about things that I wouldn’t otherwise. 

Even though I had a frustrating strike-filled day, when I got home the most amazing smell ever filled the entire house! My host mom had made some kind of apple raisin bread, or something like that. Anyway, the lovely aroma helped dissipate my less than jovial mood.

One more note on the strikes… you know you’re in the middle of a strike when the little electronic board at the bus stop saying when the next bus will come is just completely blank. What’s worse is if it says 5 min, then 4, then 3, then 2, then 1, then 0, then no bus comes, then the time goes up to 1 hour. That is most certainly an unfortunate situation.

The final vote for the retirement law change is this week. If it passes, strikes for the rest my life. If not, maybe I'll get to ride the bus sometime this month... after all I did buy a bus pass, so riding the bus would be nice.

P.S. Today 46% of all flights were canceled due to the strikes.

You MUST know this word to survive in France… Grève = strike

P.S. There are 12,000 gas stations in France and so far 3,000 have run out of gas...uh oh