Stereotypically, France is known for its love of strikes. I would say the French just like to express themselves by taking to the streets. There have been tons of protests since my arrival, ranging from the engineering students at the university to support for Palestine, but the biggest ones are the lycée students and the recent garbage worker strike.
Lycée Students
The education minister has proposed some serious changes to the secondary school system and it hasn't boded well with the high schoolers. In France, upon entering high school, one must select a track to follow through the course of the 4 years in lycée. These tracks are either vocational or academic oriented, and within those tracks there are others, such as economics, business training, the humanities, science and math, and technology. This decision affects how many hours of different courses you are required to take; obviously someone in the economics track will take more math classes and fewer literature classes than someone in the humanities track. Apparently, the education Minister, Darcos, wants to change the number of hours of general studies and also the whole track system. It of course has its pluses and minuses: what if you decide you hate humanities and you have already chosen this path? Either way, the students are not happy and right before Christmas vacation they took to the streets in protest. Then in the first weeks of January they were at it again (perhaps they just wanted an extension of their holidays...). Their anger with the decisions have caused Darcos to change some of his ideas, or at least the way he words them, so perhaps they will be successful in their endeavor.
Trash Workers
Imagine all the garbage that Christmas produces: wrapping paper, foie gras cans, spoiled meat, turkey carcasses, plastic that once covered a brand new wii, Christmas trees, cardboard boxes... now imagine the garbage that New Year's brings: broken champagne bottles, discarded party favors, plastic champagne flutes, oyster shells...
Now imagine a month's worth of garbage plus Christmas and NYE stuff, and you have the streets of Orléans. Since December 25, the garbage workers have been on strike and it's not a pleasant sight. A once pedestrian friendly city, it is now nigh impossible to walk on the sidewalks thanks to the overflowing trash bins. Health hazard? The leader of the trash workers union doesn't think so. He said that you don't have sanitary issues when it's cold (what about rats, and recently the temperature went up, what now?) They are striking for pay raises and changes in policy. And apparently they are serious and negotiations aren't working because there's still garbage everywhere.
When one of the 3ème's fathers was getting kicked out of France for not having papers, my students protested for two hours. Barely 14, they have been engendered in the ways to let your government know that you are not happy.
The 29th of this month is a major teacher strike day, but since I am not part of a union and I want to get paid, I will still be teaching. The question of course is whether or not the students will actually show.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
A Desert Christmas and a Parisian New Year
PHOTOS
On December 22, I flew from Paris to Marrakesh, Morocco. I arrived around 6pm, took an extremely expensive cab into the city center, and was given horrible directions to my hostel by the cabdriver. So of course, I got lost, wondering around in this huge medina that was packed with shops, motorcycles/scooters, donkey carts and tons of people. Thanks to the help of a French guy at another hostel, I finally found where I had reserved a bed. Boy, was I in for a surprise; the bedroom was 18 beds lined up in rows with no lockers or any privacy to say the least. I headed downstairs to check out Marrakesh when I met a British family on their vacation. They were very kind, and sort of “adopted” me. I went to eat with the son and daughter, and here we met some friendly Moroccan gents who took us into the nicer part of town where we could find bars and clubs. I suppose the reason that a bottle of wine exceeded 25 euros was due to the fact that Morocco is a predominately Muslim nation and also perhaps because the bars were in the rich part of town. And for the record, Morocco in December is not hot, far from it actually. I was freezing the whole trip, and the hostel of course didn’t have heat.
The next day we had a lovely breakfast on the terrace overlooking the medina. We then headed out to do some hardcore bargaining for Christmas gifts in the market. The moment I stepped off the plane and smelled that diesel-ly, oh so African scent, I knew I was back on the motherland. Of course the people looked a bit different from sub-Saharan Africans, but the lack of traffic lights, the overabundance of bicycles, motorcycles and donkey carts on the roads, the harassing men, and the bargaining in shops brought me back. After hours in the shops, we stopped for coffee and tea in a terraced café overlooking the square called Djemma el-Fna. Here you could find snake charmers, dancers, acrobats, women wanting to give you henna tattoos, freshly squeezed orange juice, spice carts, dried fruit carts, and men with monkeys. All of my senses were overwhelmed by this small, but bustling square. After our break, we found a palace with beautiful architecture, explored the markets some more, before heading back for couscous and tagine for dinner. After dinner, we decided to try out a Hammam, a Moroccan style bath. For 13 euros, we relaxed for 45 minutes in a hot sauna lit by candlelight, got a scrub down with black (smelled minty) soap, and an oil massage. It was absolutely fantastic and was totally worth getting my hair messed up.
Christmas Eve, Lizzie and Megan, two American friends from France met me at the hostel and we headed for the bus to Ourzazate (pronounced WAR-ZA-ZAT). From Marrakesh we had to cross the high Atlas Mountains, and I have never seen such landscape in my life: Red clay and dry scrub with the backdrop of snow capped peaks. We drove up and up through forests, small villages, along windy roads with the threat of falling stones or snow. On the other side of the mountain range is what I was told is landscape similar to Arizona, with red clay plateaus and hillsides. Ourzazate is famous for its movie studios; if you have seen Gladiator or the Mummy, this is where those films were made. Once we arrived, we explored the city a bit, then found a restaurant to have our “Christmas” dinner: vegetarian couscous, chicken tagine, and lamb chops with French fries. We hit the sack early, because Christmas day had the promise of desert tours that started quite early.
Christmas day, we parted our ways, the other girls headed on a two day trek in the desert and me headed on a shorter trip to some cool sights around Ourzazate. In an SUV, I and a tour guide named Nacir headed to three Casbahs, Moroccan villages on hilltops that have been around for many centuries. The three Casabahs were : Tifoultoute, Ait Ben Haddou, and Tamdakht. I just saw the first one from a distant, but quite a beautiful sight with a walled town and a huge lookout tower on top. To get to Ait Ben Haddou, we strayed off the main road, crossed a river by foot, and climbed to the top of the Casbah to see the gorgeous view of the mountains and village below. This particular casbah was very important during the spice trades from Timbuktu. In fact, if you so desire, you could take a camel ride from Ourzazate to Timbuktu, to have the experiences of those merchants from the 12th century. It only takes 53 days. the final casbah I saw was a bit smaller, but it was here that I got to ride a camel (albeit only for a few minutes, and at a cost of 4 euros, but definitely worth it). It was a bit rocky, like riding on a boat in the ocean, but whoa was I high up, I never thought about how tall camels are! Though that tour cost me a pretty penny (75 euros including tip, access to the casbah, camel ride, and tour) I am glad I did it and didn’t leave Ourzazate without seeing anything.
The bus ride back to Marrakesh was horrendous. It was a very smooth, fast ride, but apparently it wasn’t so smooth for 75% of the voyagers, because they were all puking. I am not normally thrown off by vomit, but when the whole bus is busting out plastic bags to throw up, and then they have to keep it for the rest of the 5 hour drive…. Well I can say I was very happy to get to Marrakesh!
On the bus I met a French/Lebanese science teacher who hails from the town where Evian is produced. He needed a hostel, so I showed him my “lovely” one, and we hung out, talking about American politics, the Middle East situation, the French education system, and a host of other topics. The next morning I said farewell to Morocco, arrived in Paris around 2, took the train back to Orleans (it was a good 30 minutes late), went to a small party with some French friends, slept for like 3 hours, left Beaugency at 6:30, got to Paris at 8:15, killed time in a café, took the train to the Airport and finally met Aaron and Dad at 12ish on the 26th. It was quite a whirlwind of traveling, and it wasn’t even over yet!!
We checked into the hotel, then headed south to Paris. We searched out the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and explored the left bank around Fontaine St. Michel. We were all exhausted, so after dinner and all that walking, we crashed at the hotel.
Sunday, 28th December: The Louvre. I am certain that this was the highlight of both Aaron and Dad’s trip. Aaron kept asking if we could find Mary Magdalene’s tomb (reference to the Da Vinci Code). We spent two hours in the French statues and bronzes section, before we realized that there was no way we could see everything in this huge museum in a day. We saw Hammurabi’s code in all its glory (did you know it says that if a child is disrespectful to his parents, he loses a hand?) before joining the crowd to see the most famous item of all, good ol’ Mona. What’s so great about her anyway? I bet she was just some rich lady that asked Da Vinci to paint her and over the years we have made such a big deal over it. We also saw some other famous paintings by Delacroix and of course a Joan of Arc portrait. After the Louvre, we found a small pizza restaurant near a statue of Moliere, then headed to Musee d’Orsay for some impressionist paintings by the likes of Monet, Manet, and Van Gogh. After that we headed to St. Germain area for a very French dinner (escargots, frog legs, fondue, duck breast, and wine of course) before heading back to the hotel.
Monday, 29th December: I guess this time of year is the tourist season because all the touristy spots were packed. We entered Notre Dame in all its glory (p.s. there is a Joan of Arc statue here too!), the Concierge where Marie Antoinette and Robespiere were held during the revolution and before their deaths by guillotine, and Saint-Chappelle cathedral with its beautiful stained glass windows. We ate sandwiches while sitting on the Seine River and then headed to the area around Chatelet and Centre Pompidou, where we did a little shopping (didn’t buy anything though).
Tuesday, 29th December: Headed out of town a bit to go to Versailles. I studied this palace in a fine arts class freshman year, but it was a bit disappointing, mostly because of the overwhelming crowd and the dreary rain. Once inside, you couldn’t pause long to look at any piece of art because of the pressing crowd, but I did get to see the glorified portraits of Louis XIV (it was his chateau) and Napoleon. There was also this modern art exhibit that was interspersed throughout that was extremely bizarre considering the beauty surrounding it. By modern art I mean a display case full of old vacuum cleaners, a statue of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp, and other strange stuff. Lunch at McDo’s (sad I know) and then to Orleans for the afternoon. Aaron said he liked Orleans, and that made me happy. We just pretty much explored my stomping ground before eating dinner at a local restaurant and heading back to Paris.
Wednesday,31st December: Made a fat morning (gras matinee) because we knew it would be a long day. Met Kether for lunch at a Senegalese restaurant in the 11th (p.s. Aaron and Dad were both thrown off, because this part of Paris is very “ethnic” i.e. a lot of black people on the streets and in the shops). We checked out Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, saw Moulin Rouge and all the sex shops. After a brief stop at the hotel to drop off our stuff, we headed to Chatelet for dinner (a long one) to await the coming year. Cops were everywhere. The metros were free starting at 5, so you can imagine the crowds. I got first hand experience seeing the “hoodlum” youth of Paris, boys lighting cigarettes on the metro (big no-no) harassing people on the train, shaking the candy machines for free loot, running through the halls and getting apprehended by the police. After dinner, we met Kether and her friend Jamela for champagne before hitting the metro (no champagne on the Champs de l’elysees, the one thing the cops actually enforced). After fighting through the crowded metro, we arrived on the Champs at 3 minutes til 12. We check our watches, 11:59… 12:00… NOTHING. We turn towards the Eiffel Tower, nothing. We wait, 12:15, still nothing. Talk about disappointment. Despite the fact that the streets were packed with people, there was no fireworks show, no countdown, no ball drop. Just a bunch of drunk people, cops, and us. We tried to make it fun by singing patriotic American songs before headed to the metro to wait an hour for the train. We got back to our hotel at 3am.
Thursday, 1st January: Took the TGV to Le Mans. The TGV is a very fast train system in France and Aaron and Dad were really excited to take it. We kept going through tunnels and my ears kept popping. Le Mans was DEAD on the 1st, so we took the tram out to the racetrack where they have the 24 hours of Le Mans race every year. Then we just headed back to Paris, ate dinner at the same restaurant we had the night before, and then to the hotel to pack.
Friday, 2nd January: I accompanied Aaron and Dad back to the airport where we said our goodbyes. It was great having them visit, show them around, pretend like I knew what I was doing. I left the airport and headed straight for Orleans where I spent the weekend with Charlotte, hanging out, watching Top Chef and planning lessons (ugh, gotta work next week, no fun!).
So the new year in Orleans started splendidly, i.e. three inches of snow and -4 degree weather. It snowed all day monday, the day I moved into my new apartement (read sliding on ice/snow with luggage is not fun). But now I live in the center of town and have heat and internet, yay!!!
On December 22, I flew from Paris to Marrakesh, Morocco. I arrived around 6pm, took an extremely expensive cab into the city center, and was given horrible directions to my hostel by the cabdriver. So of course, I got lost, wondering around in this huge medina that was packed with shops, motorcycles/scooters, donkey carts and tons of people. Thanks to the help of a French guy at another hostel, I finally found where I had reserved a bed. Boy, was I in for a surprise; the bedroom was 18 beds lined up in rows with no lockers or any privacy to say the least. I headed downstairs to check out Marrakesh when I met a British family on their vacation. They were very kind, and sort of “adopted” me. I went to eat with the son and daughter, and here we met some friendly Moroccan gents who took us into the nicer part of town where we could find bars and clubs. I suppose the reason that a bottle of wine exceeded 25 euros was due to the fact that Morocco is a predominately Muslim nation and also perhaps because the bars were in the rich part of town. And for the record, Morocco in December is not hot, far from it actually. I was freezing the whole trip, and the hostel of course didn’t have heat.
The next day we had a lovely breakfast on the terrace overlooking the medina. We then headed out to do some hardcore bargaining for Christmas gifts in the market. The moment I stepped off the plane and smelled that diesel-ly, oh so African scent, I knew I was back on the motherland. Of course the people looked a bit different from sub-Saharan Africans, but the lack of traffic lights, the overabundance of bicycles, motorcycles and donkey carts on the roads, the harassing men, and the bargaining in shops brought me back. After hours in the shops, we stopped for coffee and tea in a terraced café overlooking the square called Djemma el-Fna. Here you could find snake charmers, dancers, acrobats, women wanting to give you henna tattoos, freshly squeezed orange juice, spice carts, dried fruit carts, and men with monkeys. All of my senses were overwhelmed by this small, but bustling square. After our break, we found a palace with beautiful architecture, explored the markets some more, before heading back for couscous and tagine for dinner. After dinner, we decided to try out a Hammam, a Moroccan style bath. For 13 euros, we relaxed for 45 minutes in a hot sauna lit by candlelight, got a scrub down with black (smelled minty) soap, and an oil massage. It was absolutely fantastic and was totally worth getting my hair messed up.
Christmas Eve, Lizzie and Megan, two American friends from France met me at the hostel and we headed for the bus to Ourzazate (pronounced WAR-ZA-ZAT). From Marrakesh we had to cross the high Atlas Mountains, and I have never seen such landscape in my life: Red clay and dry scrub with the backdrop of snow capped peaks. We drove up and up through forests, small villages, along windy roads with the threat of falling stones or snow. On the other side of the mountain range is what I was told is landscape similar to Arizona, with red clay plateaus and hillsides. Ourzazate is famous for its movie studios; if you have seen Gladiator or the Mummy, this is where those films were made. Once we arrived, we explored the city a bit, then found a restaurant to have our “Christmas” dinner: vegetarian couscous, chicken tagine, and lamb chops with French fries. We hit the sack early, because Christmas day had the promise of desert tours that started quite early.
Christmas day, we parted our ways, the other girls headed on a two day trek in the desert and me headed on a shorter trip to some cool sights around Ourzazate. In an SUV, I and a tour guide named Nacir headed to three Casbahs, Moroccan villages on hilltops that have been around for many centuries. The three Casabahs were : Tifoultoute, Ait Ben Haddou, and Tamdakht. I just saw the first one from a distant, but quite a beautiful sight with a walled town and a huge lookout tower on top. To get to Ait Ben Haddou, we strayed off the main road, crossed a river by foot, and climbed to the top of the Casbah to see the gorgeous view of the mountains and village below. This particular casbah was very important during the spice trades from Timbuktu. In fact, if you so desire, you could take a camel ride from Ourzazate to Timbuktu, to have the experiences of those merchants from the 12th century. It only takes 53 days. the final casbah I saw was a bit smaller, but it was here that I got to ride a camel (albeit only for a few minutes, and at a cost of 4 euros, but definitely worth it). It was a bit rocky, like riding on a boat in the ocean, but whoa was I high up, I never thought about how tall camels are! Though that tour cost me a pretty penny (75 euros including tip, access to the casbah, camel ride, and tour) I am glad I did it and didn’t leave Ourzazate without seeing anything.
The bus ride back to Marrakesh was horrendous. It was a very smooth, fast ride, but apparently it wasn’t so smooth for 75% of the voyagers, because they were all puking. I am not normally thrown off by vomit, but when the whole bus is busting out plastic bags to throw up, and then they have to keep it for the rest of the 5 hour drive…. Well I can say I was very happy to get to Marrakesh!
On the bus I met a French/Lebanese science teacher who hails from the town where Evian is produced. He needed a hostel, so I showed him my “lovely” one, and we hung out, talking about American politics, the Middle East situation, the French education system, and a host of other topics. The next morning I said farewell to Morocco, arrived in Paris around 2, took the train back to Orleans (it was a good 30 minutes late), went to a small party with some French friends, slept for like 3 hours, left Beaugency at 6:30, got to Paris at 8:15, killed time in a café, took the train to the Airport and finally met Aaron and Dad at 12ish on the 26th. It was quite a whirlwind of traveling, and it wasn’t even over yet!!
We checked into the hotel, then headed south to Paris. We searched out the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and explored the left bank around Fontaine St. Michel. We were all exhausted, so after dinner and all that walking, we crashed at the hotel.
Sunday, 28th December: The Louvre. I am certain that this was the highlight of both Aaron and Dad’s trip. Aaron kept asking if we could find Mary Magdalene’s tomb (reference to the Da Vinci Code). We spent two hours in the French statues and bronzes section, before we realized that there was no way we could see everything in this huge museum in a day. We saw Hammurabi’s code in all its glory (did you know it says that if a child is disrespectful to his parents, he loses a hand?) before joining the crowd to see the most famous item of all, good ol’ Mona. What’s so great about her anyway? I bet she was just some rich lady that asked Da Vinci to paint her and over the years we have made such a big deal over it. We also saw some other famous paintings by Delacroix and of course a Joan of Arc portrait. After the Louvre, we found a small pizza restaurant near a statue of Moliere, then headed to Musee d’Orsay for some impressionist paintings by the likes of Monet, Manet, and Van Gogh. After that we headed to St. Germain area for a very French dinner (escargots, frog legs, fondue, duck breast, and wine of course) before heading back to the hotel.
Monday, 29th December: I guess this time of year is the tourist season because all the touristy spots were packed. We entered Notre Dame in all its glory (p.s. there is a Joan of Arc statue here too!), the Concierge where Marie Antoinette and Robespiere were held during the revolution and before their deaths by guillotine, and Saint-Chappelle cathedral with its beautiful stained glass windows. We ate sandwiches while sitting on the Seine River and then headed to the area around Chatelet and Centre Pompidou, where we did a little shopping (didn’t buy anything though).
Tuesday, 29th December: Headed out of town a bit to go to Versailles. I studied this palace in a fine arts class freshman year, but it was a bit disappointing, mostly because of the overwhelming crowd and the dreary rain. Once inside, you couldn’t pause long to look at any piece of art because of the pressing crowd, but I did get to see the glorified portraits of Louis XIV (it was his chateau) and Napoleon. There was also this modern art exhibit that was interspersed throughout that was extremely bizarre considering the beauty surrounding it. By modern art I mean a display case full of old vacuum cleaners, a statue of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp, and other strange stuff. Lunch at McDo’s (sad I know) and then to Orleans for the afternoon. Aaron said he liked Orleans, and that made me happy. We just pretty much explored my stomping ground before eating dinner at a local restaurant and heading back to Paris.
Wednesday,31st December: Made a fat morning (gras matinee) because we knew it would be a long day. Met Kether for lunch at a Senegalese restaurant in the 11th (p.s. Aaron and Dad were both thrown off, because this part of Paris is very “ethnic” i.e. a lot of black people on the streets and in the shops). We checked out Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, saw Moulin Rouge and all the sex shops. After a brief stop at the hotel to drop off our stuff, we headed to Chatelet for dinner (a long one) to await the coming year. Cops were everywhere. The metros were free starting at 5, so you can imagine the crowds. I got first hand experience seeing the “hoodlum” youth of Paris, boys lighting cigarettes on the metro (big no-no) harassing people on the train, shaking the candy machines for free loot, running through the halls and getting apprehended by the police. After dinner, we met Kether and her friend Jamela for champagne before hitting the metro (no champagne on the Champs de l’elysees, the one thing the cops actually enforced). After fighting through the crowded metro, we arrived on the Champs at 3 minutes til 12. We check our watches, 11:59… 12:00… NOTHING. We turn towards the Eiffel Tower, nothing. We wait, 12:15, still nothing. Talk about disappointment. Despite the fact that the streets were packed with people, there was no fireworks show, no countdown, no ball drop. Just a bunch of drunk people, cops, and us. We tried to make it fun by singing patriotic American songs before headed to the metro to wait an hour for the train. We got back to our hotel at 3am.
Thursday, 1st January: Took the TGV to Le Mans. The TGV is a very fast train system in France and Aaron and Dad were really excited to take it. We kept going through tunnels and my ears kept popping. Le Mans was DEAD on the 1st, so we took the tram out to the racetrack where they have the 24 hours of Le Mans race every year. Then we just headed back to Paris, ate dinner at the same restaurant we had the night before, and then to the hotel to pack.
Friday, 2nd January: I accompanied Aaron and Dad back to the airport where we said our goodbyes. It was great having them visit, show them around, pretend like I knew what I was doing. I left the airport and headed straight for Orleans where I spent the weekend with Charlotte, hanging out, watching Top Chef and planning lessons (ugh, gotta work next week, no fun!).
So the new year in Orleans started splendidly, i.e. three inches of snow and -4 degree weather. It snowed all day monday, the day I moved into my new apartement (read sliding on ice/snow with luggage is not fun). But now I live in the center of town and have heat and internet, yay!!!
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