you kinda lost me on that one...

So, throughout this whole student strike business, I've been feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing.  Part of me is like, what are these people doing?  All that they are accomplishing is blocking everyone else from going to class.  I feel like this is the attitude of a lot of the people I know, and especially the other american students, who are sick of not knowing if they are going to have class and not knowing what is going on .  

On the other hand, the revolutionary activist in me has a different attitude: rock on guys, fight the system and don't let your universities become privatized!  I don't know all the particularities of the law, but from what I have read and heard, I'm not a big fan of it.  

So overall, I just don't know what to think about all of this.  I like to see students standing up to the state and fighting against something that they don't think is right, but at the same time, I think that blocking campus is taking it a little too far.  Strike and protest in the street; cool, I'm behind you, but once you start impeding on other peoples' rights and abilities to get on with their lives, I'm not sure it's such a good thing.  It's kind of a fine line, I think.

And they crossed it yesterday and really lost my support.  

Here's some context:

The administration has been taking a lot of steps to get things back on track and negotiate with the blockers.  One of the big issues has been getting legitimate student input on the whole thing.  The AGs, which are big student meetings where everyone is invited to come and speak their mind and vote (by a count of raised hands) on different things, are basically being run by the students who are leading the movement, and the majority of people who make it to them are those who are for the strike.  Therefore, they continue to vote to continue the strike.  Their argument is that the AGs are open and that anyone can come and vote as they like, which is a valid argument, but not very practical.  

Last week, the university organized an online vote, which was decided to be illegitimate at an AG, so the students called for a boycott.  The majority (with about 35% of the students voting) called to stop the blockage and get back to classes, but who knows what would have happened if the vote hadn't been boycotted, so that vote didn't do much.  This week, the administration has been holding meetings and negotiations and agreed to hold an in-person, secret ballot vote on campus, which was something the student blockers had been asking for (although, after all that, they said they wouldn't accept the results of it...?).  The administration has really been pushing to reopen the campuses and allow students to return to classes, but it sounds like they were quite open to continuing discussions and debates, just in a slightly different context.

Anyway, it has finally been looking like things might return to relative normalcy...until last night when a big group of students went into a grocery store en masse, filled at least 5 grocery carts with food, and passed through the cash registers without paying.  Apparently there were about 50 of them, and they attacked a security guard who tried to stop them, so there was little anyone could do to stop them.  They took the stoled food back to the Bron campus, where they were met by police and a number of arrests were made.  The administration decided to close the campus for at least two more days while they try to figure out what to do.

Ok, seriously guys, that's just ridiculous!  I don't understand how they expect people to take them seriously if they are pulling stunts like that.  I certainly can't.

Something that has really been bugging me about this whole thing is that it started as a movement against a law that a lot of people are against, a law that was passed under shady circumstances, but I have hardly heard anyone really talking about the law for a couple weeks now.  Granted, I haven't been attending a lot of the meetings, but I feel like most of the debate has been around the blocking of campus and whether that should continue.  Which is a very different question.  I know a lot of people who say the law is bad, but also that blocking campus is not the right answer. 

I'm not sure how to conclude other than: arrgghhhhh.  This whole thing has become ridiculous.  I am a lot less affected by it because the IEP has yet to vote to block campus, and therefore all I have been missing is capoeira and purtuguese (although I really miss capoeira and haven't been able to go to the senzala studio for non-university classes), but a lot of people are missing all their classes and all of the work has to be made up somehow, which could get difficult if this continues. 

And that is my 2 cents.  Speaking of work, I have two tests next week and some portuguese homework that I really should be doing, so I'm going to end this here.

Bisous.

coolest idea ever

So, on my first morning in London (ie Saturday), whilst munching on toast (which I was SO excited about because I don't have a toaster in my kitchen and I don't buy sliced bread), I started chatting with this guy who was staying in my hostel. We were talking about music and he told me that he had made mix CDs and brought them with him to give to people and he left me a copy on my bed. It is so cool!! And what a cool idea for people who are traveling, especially when staying in hostels! I love it!!

Going to London ended up being a really amazing experience. I was talking to one of the guys at the conference, Clint (from Mesa, AZ), and he was saying that London was never really on his list of places to go, but he was really glad he went. I feel the same way. I mean, I guess I've always wanted to at least see London, but it's never been all that high on my list. Then I got an email about this Globalization and Justice Conference put on by Americans for Informed Democracy, and thought it sounded interesting, so I signed up and headed over the channel with my friend Margot to Londontown.  One airport fiasco, a train ride, some claustrophobia at Liverpool Street station, and wandering nonsensically up and down Holborn Road, we arrived at the Faraday House, where the conference was being held, just in time to miss introductions but still able to eat pizza.

The conference was a REALLY good thing for me.  I have always been a relatively engaged and I've gotten used to working with campus groups like CAER or doing other organizing (or just sitting outside Napoleon's apartment drinking wine and talking local and national politics), and those are all things that have been missing in my life being here, although I have tried to stay apprised of what's going on in the student movement lately and went to an Assemblée Générale last week just to see what it would be like.  That isn't the point right now, though.  The point is, I needed this weekend as a reminder of what it's like to spend time with other engaged people and discuss important issues and come up with ways to be active and organize and all that jazz.  I think that, most of all, I am glad I went because I was able to connect and interact with people at the conference on levels that I haven't experienced in a while.  With the other American students here, it's all traveling and what we did over the weekend and "I miss home", etc. and I'm not really to a point with most of the french students I know to sit and discuss global issues and have fun at the same time.  Not that any of that is bad, it's just different from what I am used to.  

Basically, the conference was made up of american college students, both in the states and students studying abroad, and a number of british students as well (although none from London, which could have been helpful at certain moments when we were wandering around in the middle of the night not entirely sure where we were).  There were people there who had done a bit of organizing/activism type stuff, as well as people who had never done any of it, and mostly just came to see London.  And we all got together and heard speakers talk about globalization and justice and discussed the issues that were important to us individually, and got into small groups to work on either creating an issue-based campaign or writing a policy proposal.  With my group, we wrote a proposal to propose a resolution to the UN calling for member states to give power to indigenous peoples in the creation of environmental policy.  Which we might even work more on, which would be pretty cool.  That was an interesting exercise, actually.  At conferences in the past, the focus has either been on speakers and discussions rather than projects, or on more specific mock-situation exercises.  This, on the other hand, was very open: pick an issue and create a campaign or write a policy proposal.  You have about 5 hours.  Go!  It obviously didn't come without a certain amount of frustration, compromise, and letting go, but I was amazed at what we came up with in the end.

Aside from the conference itself, though, the whole trip was just amazing and SO good for me.  I met this great group of people, who I will hopefully stay in touch with, and wandered around and went out and had an all around good time.  It's really good to break up the monotony of life sometimes, and if you are going to do it, you might as well do it right, and really make the most of it.  

I didn't have a whole lot of time for touristy stuff, because we were doing the conference for the majority of daylight hours (which there weren't all that many of), and then going pubhopping and then sleeping and doing it again.  We did do a group tour, which was a "ghost tour," where we wandered around and our guide told us about the various ghosts haunting different buildings and the really quite gruesome past of London.  It was a strange but fun experience.  On Sunday, we had the afternoon to ourselves, and went shopping on Oxford Street, and then walked along the Thames and saw Big Ben and the Eye and pretty much everything that is along the Thames from the Eye to the Tate Modern, which was SUCH an amazing museum.  

Finally, I spent the night in the Stansted airport outside of London, which was awful because it was FREEZING and there were people ever and I was trying very unsuccessfully to sleep on the cold hard linoleum floor, and then when I was finally able to go through security and found a seat at my gate, I started to doze off and almost missed my plane, but I made it home in one piece.  I spent most of yesterday in bed and slept a lot because I hardly slept most of the weekend, especially the last night in the airport, and I was mentally exhausted from the whole thing, so I took a personal day.  

And now I'm back to life as usual.  It kind of feels like London was this little blip in life that is fully separated from everything else because it was kind of in this little universe apart from everything.  Everyone spoke English and there were people from the states and I met all these cool new people and there was cream cheese and then I came back and everything was more or less the same.  And no one spoke English (ok, that's an exaggeration) and it was all people I knew and there was no cream cheese (pretty much there was no food at all in my fridge).  That makes it sound like I was disappointed to come back to Lyon, but I wasn't.  I wish the whole thing had been a little longer because I feel like I was just getting used to it when everyone had to leave.  Which is what happens at stuff like that.  I know that.  And I am happy to be back in Lyon to a place I know my way around and I don't feel like I have to be constantly on the move to see the most stuff possible in like 60 hours.  London was fun to visit, but it's definitely NOT a place I would ever want to live.

Anyway...it's way too late for me to be awake (my sleep schedule is all kinds of off...plus I had coffee at 7 to make it through one of my classes tonight....not such a brilliant idea.

So, goodnight!

Bisous.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As usual, I really should be in bed...or packing...but I am not actually that sleepy (I think I will have a different opinion as soon as I get in bed though) and I HATE packing, so here I am. I had a delicious frenchified Thanksgiving dinner (no mashed potatos, though, which was really lame) and ate WAY too much and got to see everyone, and overall it was a really good thing to have happen.

I could tell a million stories about today, actually, but in a nutshell, there is a new job, the riot police were all over my neighborhood today, and students are still protesting, I finally have the two books I needed to buy for school, bought tickets to a soccer game, and then thanksgivinginess. And tomorrow I leave for London for a Globalization Justice conference and I'm totally not ready to leave yet. But oh well.

I did want to say a little something, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, though. During dinner, we did the whole go around the table and say what you are thankful for thing. Obviously, everyone is thankful that we have the opportunity to be here in Lyon studying and experiencing all of these wonderful things. What I had to add, though, was (a) I am thankful for my great roommate (who was sitting right next to me) and (b) I am really thankful that we have the resources to stay in touch with people back home. THis has been especially important to me, what with things being so difficult back home. I can't imagine going through all of this without being able to get emails from my mom every couple of days keeping me updated, and emails from my absolutely fantastic friends (especially big shout out to G-G, who has been great at keeping my spirits up and letting me freak out to her via email/AIM), and being able to talk to people on AIM, and even being able to talk to people on the phone every once in a while. Seriously, I can't say this for sure, but I think if I wasn't so well plugged in back home, I would be having a really difficult time here. I guess that could be seen as a negative thing, but I think with the facility of it all, I really am having an amazing immersion experience and doing the France thing while still keeping my strong connections to home, and I am infinitely thankful for that. My mom keeps reminding me to keep counting my blessings, and I really am SO lucky and SO blessed. Sometimes it's hard to recognize it when I'm worrying about things back home, or not knowing if campus will be open for the test I am supposed to have in 9 hours (seriously...I'm pretty sure I have a better sense of what's going on back home than I do of what's going on with these student strikes), or dealing with the millions of paperwork details required by French bureaucracy, or trying to get everything done on time, but when I stop for a minute and realize where I am and what I'm doing and all of the resources I have (even though sometimes I feel kind of lost in it all), I really do realize just how very blessed I am.

So there you go. That's what I'm thankful for...plus the people who take the time to read this blog and put up with the rambling and silliness of my writing.

That being said, I really need to get back to the reality of leaving tomorrow and not knowing exactly where I am going...and maybe studying some portuguese...

*bisous* and TONS of love

Power Rangers!!

I really should be asleep, because apparantly I have a job interview in 8 hours...but whatever. Lots of thoughts, not very tired, therefore I shall stay up. I just decided that I'm not very good at this whole travel blog thing...or maybe blog thing in general. My brain just does not hold a train of thought very well at all. And, instead of telling some contiguous story about something that happened to me, I have all these really short stories that I want to tell that don't really have anything to do with each other except that they are things that have happened in my life lately or things I have thought about (can you tell this blog is going to be like that?)

First of all, when I was walking home tonight, there was this group of people that we passed and two of them were dressed vaguely like power rangers, and one of them ran past us making strange noises. And then we passed the rest of them, and the second guy in a power rangers costume was like, "he's not with us". It was good for a laugh.

I just realized that this post is completely capable of being a contiguous story, because all of the stuff I want to write about basically revolves around today, but I'm just not in a state of mind to write it that way, so it's a little helter skelter (which reminds me, my friend Maxime LOVES to sing Beatles songs all through my constitutional law class, whih is pretty much the coolest thing ever. That kid never ceases to make me laugh).

Today, my roommate invited a couple friends over and we had a delicious vietnamese/taiwanese lunch which was prepared by all 5 of us smashed into our tiny kitchen and it was AMAZING. Wei Ching's friend is from Vietnam, so she came over to make nem, which are fried spring rolls, and then Wei Ching made soup and...BOBA. It was so exciting, although she kind of hadn't cooked it all the way, but I didn't even care. For those of you who don't know, boba are these little balls of tapioca, and you put them in drinks and they are just really amazing and I love them. It's actually a specialty from Taiwan, but has gotten pretty popular in the states, but basically does not exist here. Except that Wei Ching's friend had some from Taiwan. YES. Basically, lunch was a giant success and made for a really great afternoon.

EVERYTHING smells like cigarettes. Seriously, every time I go out I come home reeking of cigarette smoke. It's in my hair and my clothes and it's just icky. Even after a nice long shower and clean PJs, I can still smell it. Berk! I cannot WAIT until January when the smoking ban goes into effect (sorry Napoleon, I know you are anti smoking bans, and as much as I love you, I do not appreciate having my entire wardrobe smell like smoke).

Despite the unfortunate odor that comes from going out, I have been having a lot of fun on those occasions when I go out. Tonight, I went out with Wei Ching, her friend Mathilde, and Mathilde's friend, whose name I never completely got. Anyway, we just went to this bar to hang out and have a beer and watch the soccer game (France v Ukraine...which ended in a tie and was really a pathetic, very uneventful game). It was a nice little girl's night out, and I think it will become a weekly tradition. Yay!

OH! They are opening a Starbucks in Lyon soon. Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about this, but I do have to say that I really miss big lattes and cafe's with big comfy couches. Silly, I know, but it's one very american thing that I miss. I mean, there is only so much pleasure that you can get out of a cup of coffee that is gone in two sips. Even if it's really good coffee.

Um...I think that is all of the discongruousness that I can think of for now. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!!

*MUAH*

mmmmmargaritas!

Ok, there are about a million thoughts swimming around in my head (partly because they get to swim around in tequila...that makes my thoughts more active and swimmy), so I'm going to go list style and hope I catch them all. Sorry if they aren't in a very understandable order. I'm going with whatever pops into my head first.

--It is SO much warmer in Lyon than in Clermont-Ferrand, where I was visiting my friend Dia this weekend. While I have said that I can handle pretty much any kind of weather that doesn't include wind, I think I will take Lyon's windiness over C-F's icy frozen death.

--It was really good for me, emotionally, to go to C-F and to visit Dia. Partially, it was good for me to get out of Lyon (and especially to get out of my room) and do something new, but it was also really good to see an old friend who knows me really well still. It's funny the way you can pick up with someone after two years of being apart and just be able to be great friends again.

--My dad called me today and it made me SOOO happy!!! And I got to talk to my sister, which is always quite an experience, because, while she is an avid talker, there aren't always full sentences, and it doesn't always make a ton of sense. My dad did say that she has been working on her three-syllable words, namely exercise (and jumping jacks, which she is a big fan of) and chocolate. Sounds to me like two important words. Especially chocolate, but I suppose if that is a word you are going to pick up at the age of 3, it's probably a good idea to do some jumping jacks too. I totally adore that kid, and I hate that I really only see her a couple weeks out of the year. But that was a really exciting thing to come home to this afternoon.

--I spent the weekend talking to Dia about how much we miss mexican food and margaritas, and then this morning I got a message from my friend Katie inviting me to dinner with her and some of our friends and her parents, who are visiting from California. And we went to a mexican restaurant (the same one I went to a while ago with Florence...only a different location) and drank margaritas and ate mexican food. I maintain that their salsa is terrible and there were no refried beans and it was not at all spicey, but the guacamole was decent, and the food itself is actually quite good. And it was just a fun night all around. Very homey. Although I do plan to hit up every good mexican restaurant I can come up with as soon as I get home.

--The French are still striking. I had to take buses to and from C-F this weekend (although I made it no matter what, just like I promised) because the rail workers are still on strike, and Lyon 2 (where I take capoeira and portuguese) is still blocked, at least until Wednesday, when there is going to be another meeting to decide what to do.

--In 4 days I will be in LONDON!

--I really need to buy some wintery clothes, namely leg warmers (yes mom, leg warmers...I know I always used to hate them, but my legs get cold under my jeans...and I need them for the crazy jumping down to our knees stuff that my jazz teacher has decided would be fun) and tights and more long-sleeved shirts and more scarves and hats and gloves and quite possibly some boots. I really am not prepared for this cold weather at all.

--3 margaritas makes me very sleepy, so I shall stop here. Goodnight!!

*bisous*

Wind SUCKS

It is officially COLD. 18 years of winter in the desert (even with last year's 3 feet of snow) has done nothing to prepare me, much less my wardrobe, for being here. And it's only November. This morning, walking the 3 blocks to the laundrette, I almost froze to death. And the viciously cold wind didn't even slow down before ripping through my fleece jacket, long sleeve shirt, and tank top. Really, I think I could handle the cold if the wind weren't moving it around all the time (aren't things in motion supposed to warm up??)

To complain just a little bit more before I move on, the railworkers are still striking and I am gonna be a very unhappy camper if I can't get out of Lyon to visit my friend, Dia, this weekend.

I have been really unmotivated to write lately. For one thing, I guess not much has been going on here over the past couple of days, and for another, things have been kind of rough. I don't want to go into it, but I will say that I am a little frustrated by the fact that life is continuing on without me back home, and it makes it hard for me to focus on being here, no matter how many times people tell me that I should...that I shouldn't dwell on something I can't change, and that it's going to be better, or at least ok. I'm not very good at accepting change in my life at times like these.

So there you go. No exciting Francey stories for now. Basically, I've just been doing the same old thing...going to class, avoiding studying with every ounce of myself, spending a lot of time at home because it's too cold to spend too much time outside, making/eating yummy food, watching old episodes of Gilmore Girls online, and dealing with homesickness and grief...and trying to pick out and focus on the beauty.

The French are doing what they do best...

...striking (VERY important French vocab word: grève).

The rail workers are striking against the conditions for retirement, students are striking because they don't want universities to be independently funded, and apparantly a number of other unions are preparing to strike as well (for example, we have been warned of possible power outages due to the strikes), as far as I can tell for similar reasons as the railworkers.

I really don't know what to think. I was talking today with Laurie, the director of the Centre Oregon, and later with Barbara, who runs the Penn program, and both of them seemed pretty frustrated by the student strikes, even though they more or less agree with the precedent. As Laurie said, though, really all they end up doing is hurting themselves, because they miss out on classes that they will have to make up at some point.

It's quite an experience to be here with all of this going on, and tomorrow should be interesting...the students are going to block the train stations in solidarity with the railworkers (whose strike starts on Wednesday) and I'm sure there will be protests and the like going on this whole week. I will post more when I have a better idea of how this whole thing is working out. And hopefully I will manage to form more of an opinion than "grrr...I need to take a train this weekend to go visit my friend. What the hell french railworkers??" or "well, I'm glad that I don't have to take my portuguese midterm this week, but I don't think I'm going to want to study any more next week than I do right now"

Anyway, that is the state of things in France right now...or at least what I know of the state of things. In my personaly life, I had a fabulous weekend, and ended up hanging out with two girls that I met in the TOEFL class, so I'm really glad I did that. I had a total blast that included coming home at 3 am two nights in a row, teaching Europeans american drinking games, listening to Manu Chao, eating bulgarian cheese, really drunk guys dancing on a flaming bar, a pirate themed bar, a guy who reminded me of Hugh Grant, and riding a bike home in the rain. I think that is all the REALLY important stuff. Oh! And can't forget the piercing party witha couple girls from Penn, which was followed by some really delicious (and expensive) hot chocolate. And now I am back in reality, and I spent the day avoiding going to the library because I'm really not even entirely sure what I need to be doing, but I feel like I should be studying because I have 4 tests in the next 4 weeks, two of which will constitute my ENTIRE grade for they classes they are in. All I ended up accomplishing today was buying flash cards and a few other schooly supplies that I was in need of, and making a zillion portuguese flashcards.

Oh! Speaking of going shopping today (this is totaly ridiculous, but it made me happy), I also bought a tea ball that is in the shape of a tiny tea pot and comes with a little tray that you can set it on. I've been wanting to buy loose leaf tea lately, but was having a really hard time finding a tea ball, and I finally found this one and it was so cute...I just had to.

So there you go...and now I need to go to sleep because the slightly elitest political science students are not striking tomorrow, so I still have 7 hours worth of class. Yay.

Bisous.