Strike!

Oh goodness. So many things going on/gone, where to begin?
First off, I hope the fire situation turns around in California. We've had wildfires every year there, but nothing like this. I'm just glad that Schwarzenegger and Bush are trying to be proactive about the situation and hopefully the Santa Anas will die down so that the fires can be contained.

Back to Paris: Everything has gotten back to normal after the huge metro/train strike that started last Thursday. The workers are protesting pension changes that Sarkozy is trying to get passed. Pretty much everyone else supports it and the transportation workers just don't like it because they have a cushy setup with outdated retirement standards (from back when the work was still taxing and dangerous). Unfortunately, this is just a momentary time-out while the kids are out on school vacation. The workers might strike again in mid-November.

So...since class had been officially canceled on Thursday, I went jogging at the Bois du Boulogne instead. I live right by one of the lakes which is popular with the running crowd. It's very picturesque with beautiful greenery and a semi-mysterious island (it has a swanky restaurant), rowboats for the summertime, and at certain parts you might forget you're still in Paris. Yes, the edge of Paris in a nice neighborhood, but Paris nonetheless. I came right behind 15 elderly citizens and enjoyed the comical aspect of attempting to jog up a hill with a bunch of 85 year-olds strolling right in front of me. As usual, just when I was craving fresh air to fill my lungs, I got a whiff of cigar smoke. The same thing happens often when I ride the escalator up from my metro stop. There is no smoking allowed below, so the smokers often have a cigarette ready to light as soon as they hit the air. That just means the person behind him/her (me) also gets a nice dose of secondhand to complement the first breath of "fresh air." Oh well. I've learned by now to watch for it.

Anyway, back to Thursday, the first day of the strike. After jogging at the Bois, I decided to go by our metro stop to see what it would look like. Surprise, surprise. It was pretty much empty. The time clock was blinking yellow dots but there were still some people sitting around, as if maybe by some miracle a train would appear to whisk them away to their destination. I was able to help some confused American women and another French woman who was trying to explain that the trains weren't running. It felt really great to be the resident American in Paris who knew what was going on.

On Friday most trains still weren't running, and there were more on Saturday, but it wasn't back to usual with trains every couple of minutes until Sunday/Monday (thank goodness). So that was pretty much a boring weekend, except for the Paris ward Halloween party on Saturday!

I'll write about the Halloween party later... but for now I have to go.
Our group is going to Normandy for the weekend and I have to pack!