Strike!

(This post should really be dated Thursday, January 21 @ 2:00 p.m.)

Yup! Those darn French teachers are at it again! They are on strike to stop new reforms that the Minister of Education wants to implement. Basically it comes down to the same-old same-old: downsizing (or reduncancies if we are in the British version of The Office), more hours and responsibility without higher pay, a more complicated system, etc.
What this means for me is that I get to come to work like normal and wait to see if my students come or not… again. Since most teachers aren’t here (some are and, unfortunately, lots of English teachers still come), many students and parents figure it isn’t worth showing up at school to waste their time. As an assistant I am not part of the union, so I don’t have the same rights as the teachers. However, unlike the students, I will get my pay docked if I don’t show up. Basically we assistants are the bottomfeeders of the French school system.

So far I’ve had one out of two classes show up and I won’t know until 4 o’clock if the other two will come.

Since my last post life has been mostly like normal: work Monday through Thursday, go out with friends Friday and Saturday, and relax and possibly do something with the roommates. For instance, last weekend went as follows:

Thursday night, Benoit, Lina, and I went to an Irish pub (McEwan’s) with a few of our American and French friends. The two other assistants, Laura Dixon and Rebecca came with their boyfriends, Guillaume (Laura’s French boyfriend) and Tom (Rebecca’s American boyfriend visiting for a couple weeks). When we got back home, Lina and I were in the mood to dance, so we cranked up some Black Eyed Peas and went to town.

Friday night, Lina, Laura Gaertner—a different one, also an assistant—and I took a trip to Valenciennes, the city where I almost decided to live. We hung out at Laura Randall’s apartment (yes, I know, way too many Lauras in the vicinity) with a large number of other assistants from Valenciennes. I was the only guy, except for Pablo, a Spanish assistant from Chile. We had a lot of good discussions over some bottles of wine, then took off to a bar, Le Paradis, which was packed with people dancing to a strange compilation of music from the 80s and the present. A couple of the Valenciennes assistants, Chelsea and Liana were nice enough to let me sleep on their couch for the night. The next morning Laura Randall and Rose came over and the five of us watched Arrested Development for a couple hours before I took the train back to Lille.

Saturday night, Benoit, Lina, Laura and I went to a concert of a band from San Francisco, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down. It took place in a restaurant/venue on a boat in the river which runs through Lille. In addition, since Lina knows the band from her time in Montreal, we stuck around afterward and had a dance party with the band and some French people. Needless to say, it was a blast and a half, and we considered going to another of their shows in Brussels at the end of the month.

Sunday was nice and lazy. I sat around on the internet and relaxed until the early afternoon. Then, the usual gang—Lina, Benoit, Damien, Chanthana, Cousin, Camille, Christophe (the older brother of the twins) and I—went to a go-kart track. Most of them raced except for me, Lina, and Chantana. I was low on money from the weekend’s earlier adventures but I will participate the next time. Afterward we came home and relaxed with a movie.

Anyway, that was last weekend, and this weekend seems to be just as promising. I completely left out my plans for the next vacation, but when I have time I will describe that in detail.

Advertisement