La grève... oh la la

How the French are feeling about Sarkozy

Bonjour, tout le monde!  I was traveling for part of last week, and hence didn’t have a lot of internet access time.  I’m not sure if you’ve heard this from other places, but there’s a lot of striking (in French, “to strike” is faire la grève) going on because of Sarkozy/the government’s decision to raise the age of la retraite (retirement; interestingly enough, also the same word for ‘withdrawal,’ as in from an ATM) from 60 to 62.  I don’t pretend to fully understand the situation, but the system in place has been something like people that are allowed to retire as early as 60 with a limited pension and if they work until 65, then they get a slightly larger pension… but now it looks like it will change from 60 to 62 and 65 to 67.  Understandably, people that are in their 50s are not too pleased, because it’s difficult to plan to retire in another year or two and then realize that you have to work another several years before you can retire!  There are plenty of younger people that are thinking ahead and are none too happy, but it’s also especially interesting to me that students are a huge part of la grève.  I guess some well-respected French people have called young people to take action, and there’s also the argument circulating that old people take young people’s jobs.  Therefore, if grownups have to work another 2 years before retiring, new jobs won’t be opening up for students in middle and high school?  Something along those lines.  What does this mean in terms of my position teaching in France? 

Several things.  I’ll get to them in a minute.  First, I should let you know that the French strikes are nothing like the strikes-that-rarely-if-ever happen in the U.S.  They are ‘official’ and the government knows about them in advance and warns the public about what the details will entail.  For example, the workers for the buses and trains have been on strike, but they realize that there are a select few people that need to be able to get around, so there are lists of the bus and trains still in operation posted outside of stations.  Also, I haven’t seen them, but apparently people in certain jobs (we were discussing paramedics, but I’m sure it’s true for other professions as well) still do their jobs, but wear huge bright signs that they’re on strike and only do the minimum requirements of their position to make sure that things still run as needed.  With that being said, last Tuesday was a general strike that was widely publicized on and before Monday. 

I taught on Tuesday starting at 10:00.  I didn’t use the main entrance, which I kind of regret, since I apparently missed out on seeing the blockades that students had set up.  The way that students strike is by not going to school.  However, most of them actually go to school grounds, but they set up barriers and stand in front of the entrances so that no one (including other students) can enter the buildings.  I went in a backdoor entrance for professors, so I didn’t see all of the shenanigans.  This comes back to the point about how the strike affects my job- two of the professors that I work with were on strike, so I had to go to different classes and I really have no idea what happened to their classes.  (Was there a sub?  Did the few students that came to school wander aimlessly in hallways and try to join other classes?)  The lack of teachers is one effect, and the lack of students is a second one… I had 6 total classes during the day, with the following attendance: 

Class One (Premiere, aka juniors)- 6 students out of around 25

Class Two (Premiere, aka juniors)- 3 students out of around 30

Class Three (Terminale, aka seniors)- 1 student out of around 35 (who, by the way, has a British father and speaks flawless English and hence doesn’t need to practice speaking with me)

Class Four (BTS, aka two-year vocational program after graduating)- 0 students out of 9

Class Five (Seconde, aka sophomores)- 5 students out of around 35

Class Six (Premiere, aka juniors)- 9 students out of around 25

Total attendance: 24 students out of approximately 159 = around 15%

The low attendance was due to students striking (both the students who didn’t go to class and the ones who couldn’t get onto the school grounds because of the other students blocking entrances) and the bus workers striking, which meant that students who live out of town weren’t able to commute.  It made for an interesting day, to say the least.  I have to admit that I enjoyed having small groups.  It’s much easier to encourage students to speak and to avoid distractions when there are fewer élèves (students) in the classroom.  However, for the classes that I hadn’t met yet, it will be difficult to get things started in the next several weeks, since we may have to re-do introductions and Q&A time.  I did find out that the school lunches are pretty tasty!  For 2.50 (in euros), students and professors get a salad, a main dish (this week was couscous, with various topping options, one of which included female deer as the meat), bread, fruit, a bag of biscuits/crackers, and a dessert.  Tuesday’s dessert was an Isle Flottant, which literally translates to “floating island.”  I’ve never seen or consumed something similar to the states… the best way I can think to describe it was that the ‘island’ part was sort of like a whips yogurt- very light and fluffy but not as chewy as something like a marshmallow- while the ‘lagoon’ part was like vanilla pudding that was more runny (less thick) than its American counterpart.  All in all, I’d consider the combination a bargain and will likely eat at the school on the days that I work.  I finalized my schedule, and will be working Monday afternoons from 2-6, Tuesdays from 10-6, and Thursdays from 9-3.  There are no English classes on Wednesdays, so I don’t work then, and I was able to coordinate with the professors to get my Fridays off, which is very nice and gives me a lot of flexibility as far as traveling goes! 

I had the opportunity to witness a little bit more of la grève action on Thursday, when I headed to Avignon to participate in a day of formation, aka training, for my position.  (Which seems like it more logically would have come before I started… but I think that logic’s not always the way things are determined here!)  First of all, traffic was a nightmare; Joelle drove me and Amaury (my 17-year old host brother) and Cindy (his girlfriend) to Avignon, because the two of them had class.  She said she thought one of the reasons it was so bad was because people were worried about bus strikes and decided to drive instead.  The trip should normally take 35-45 minutes, but we left at 8:00 and didn’t arrive until 9:15!  When I arrived, I saw that the students were on strike at the school and had set up huge barricades of garbage cans and were blocking the entrance to the school I had to enter.  I called Laura (another assistant in Orange) to find out where I was supposed to do, and she told me that if I told the students that I was an assistant (not another student!), that they would let me in.  When I got into the school, I joined 17 other assistants who teach English in college (middle school) or lycee and live/work in the Department of Vaucluse.  It was an interesting makeup: 7 Americans, 3 Canadians, 6 Brits, one New Zealander, and one Kenyan.  Some parts were definitely helpful demonstrations of possible activities we can do with classes (I’m definitely choosing at least one song to teach this year!) and some parts were pretty pointless to do with a group of native speakers, but all in all, I think I came away with some helpful suggestions for the year.  It’s pretty much sink or swim from here on out! 

Protestors outside the walls of Avignon

My last experience was on Saturday, when there was a general demonstration in Avignon.  Caitlin and I got off the train at 10 to see hordes and hordes of people outside, just standing around, holding signs, and playing music.  When I returned to catch the bus home around 1, there was no one there- just a few cardboard signs left behind!

I’ll leave it at that for now, and fill in more details as more of the strikes and demonstrations continue.  More details to come shortly!