I Wish I Had Had My Camera....

So, my Monday morning started off the usual way - reading, a little Tony Horton p90x to keep my muscles going, breakfast, grocery store etc. I don't have to leave until 12 so it really gives me time to get some stuff done.

So I get to work after my lazy morning, to see students milling about as usual outside the lycee. But sitting. With blankets. What IS this? I thought to myself. I walked down the path to the high school to see lots of little baby trees blocking the entrance of the high school along with along with big wooden skids. Super. Just how was I supposed to get inside? And where is my camera when I need it? Thankfully some of my star students were kind enough to show me where I could go in.

All of this to stay the students were on strike. I think there might have been 50/1,100 students present today. I had a big fat ZERO number of students. There is currently a reform trying to be passed by the government which would make their already complicated school system even more so. In order to show their disgust, what do French people do? They strike. Always. You don't think you're getting paid enough? You strike. You think the room you work in is ugly? Strike. You don't want to pay 400 euro instead of 300 euro a year for college? You strike (universities were shut down for months in some cities last year for this reason). You get the picture. The French know how to strike, and they pass along this OHHHH-so-wonderful tradition to their children. Yes, hopefully you more than sense the exaggeration in that statement.

Fortunately, me going wasn't all in vain, I got to talk to teachers, helped correct some tests and just hung out. I was required to be there, otherwise I wouldn't get paid. It was a good experience. Just lucky for those students that I'm not their real teacher or else they'd get a 0% on their homework for that day. French teachers are too nice. Maybe that's the answer. Or maybe just because they're French.

P.S. Can you imagine parents in the US letting their kids skip school to go on strike. I can just hear the laughs of my parents as they shove me out the door to the school bus.....