Goodbye for the Semester!

Joyeux Noël! (Merry Christmas!)

Wow, does time fly by or what? It’s already the end of the semester, and I’m wondering how it’s been 4 months since I’ve been in Europe! In what little retrospect I have at this point (because it’s still far too soon to really be able to understand everything I’ve learned this semester), this has been a fantastic semester, and I feel extremely fortunate to have had all the wonderful experiences and to have met all the people I have. When I’m on the bus, I try and think about being on a bus in a week and no longer hearing French all around me, or eating baguette every day, or daily taking the metro/bus, or no longer living in my French house with my French family, or no longer seeing the familiar faces of new friends- American, French, and other students with whom I’ve made friends from all over the world- and it’s just… well, strange. I can’t really picture it, but I know it’s coming soon.

I wanted to share with you all some recent experiences I had in “La Bretagne”/”La Normandie” (I’ve already mentioned the two of them in previous blog posts). Not too long ago, I took two different day trips with my boyfriend, Ivan (a Richmond student), who came to visit me for a week from London to two well-known places in this region, St. Malo, and Mont St. Michel. I don’t really know how to describe these places except as beautiful, lovely, and fascinating, with so much history it’s impossible to take it all in in one day (like most historic places, no? even though that’s what everyone does, including me- oh time…).

So, let’s start with St. Malo. This is a seaside city located on the upper coast of Brittany, basically right across the English Channel (or “La Manche” to the French) from England. Here’s a picture of the sea and the rock we went out to to have lunch. Have I mentioned yet how beautiful the weather was that day? Nothing less than perfect. We spent most of the day walking around in the old part of the town that is still surrounded by walls from hundreds and hundreds of years ago.View from the shore to the island-ish deal (how precise!) we walked out to to have lunch on.Before walking out to the “island-ish deal”. It was pretty cold because of the wind… as you can tell from the bundling job I did on myself!

A view from where we came (the old part of the city surrounded by walls) once we were out on the “island-ish deal”. Gorgeous, no?!

A picture of another “island-ish deal” taken from the original ”island-ish deal” (I promise I’m done mentioning “island-ish deal”… you won’t hear it from me again! I’m kind of sick of it myself…).

Now tell me this isn’t art- how AMAZING!!! I had never seen ice cream so beautiful before this… love at first sight, most definitely… we bought this in a cute (and very popular, for obvious reasons) ice cream place in the old part of the city.

The day at St. Malo was great! It’s actually an extremely popular destination for the French for short or long vacations, as well as tourists, as you can see why. There were so many other pictures I took and wanted to add, but you know how having to choose goes… well, moving on.

We took another day trip to the famous Mont St. Malo, over which (supposedly) the French from Brittany and those from Normandy have an on-going dispute over in which region of France it is precisely located. Wanting to claim it as their own, some say it’s in Brittany, others in Normandy, but I think most people would agree that it’s in Normandy, and that it looks out over Brittany. Anyways, that’s at least what I heard. Once, I met a French student who was studying at Rennes 2 from Normandy, and when I told her that I would be soon traveling to Mont St. Michel, she said (translated from French) “How great!! Why, that’s in Normandy, you know?!” And so yes, you can see the pride :) Well, it did indeed turn out to be a pretty spectacular trip. Only about a 1.5 hour bus ride from Rennes, I went there with Ivan for the day. It’s pretty much just east of St. Malo. It’s history is pretty intense to say the least… I took the audio tour in French, so I’m afraid I didn’t catch everything, but it basically started out as a fortress around the 6th century. Not long thereafter, the first monastery was built there, and since then, it’s been primarily a monastery. Here’s a plethora of pictures below.

Driving up to Mont St. Michel in the bus, which literally becomes an island as the tide comes in. And yes, those are sheep on the side of the road. Cute, huh?

Inside Mont St. Michel… what a cute city! It’s definitely made out for tourists these days, but extremely charming and rich nonetheless.

A view of the land/water out below. In the mornings when there is a low tide, you can literally go walking out there, but by mid-afternoon, you need to be out of there because the tide starts to come in and that’s when it becomes an island. Talk about good, natural defensive measures, eh?

Me and Ivan with the “ocean” out behind us. Embarrassing as this picture is (for me, that is, though I doubt I even had to specify for whom it is embarrassing) because of my hair (I should mention it was pretty ridiculously windy there too… as you can tell… ;)), I find it so hilarious that I just have to post it. My friend told me I look like an emu. Or maybe she said ostrich… oh well. We can’t always have good hair days, can we? And plus, it’s already on facebook… and you know that that means that everyone’s already seen it.

Inside the cathedral at the top of the island fortress-monastery right before the beginning of the afternoon prayers by the monks. Gorrggeeeooouussss cathedral, and very beautiful service.

The courtyard (though I believe there’s a more specific term I’m lacking) where the monks can walk around (and tourists too!).

Looking down down down!!! Checking out the old way of bringing goods up from far below. Pretty neat.

A picture of me and Ivan.

Good bye Mont St. Michel!!!

Again, just like St. Malo, if you ever get the chance to go to France, I would highly recommend coming here. It’s well-known and highly visited for a reason, and if you go on a good day (I went on a Friday afternoon), you don’t run into too many people and avoid those tourist hoards we all hate (or… at least I do, although yup, I’m guilty myself!)

And now moving on once again… I just wanted to put up a few last pictures that I think sums up many great things about my time in Rennes, as well as my final weeks here.

This is the “Marche Noel” (forgive me for the lack of appropriate French accents… I’m not using the right keyboard) which has sprung up in the past fews years every December. It’s so incredibly cute… basically, tons of artisans sell their crafts, their artwork, their French food specialty… really nice place to walk around in for an hour, and of course, you can buy great, unique gifts there too! (Although I didn’t… let’s just say the euro to the dollar is painful X a lot, and leave it at that.)

Christmas caroling at the Franco-American Institute. Although the French don’t do the typical christmas caroling like we do in the US where we go around and knock on peoples’ doors, many French and Americans still came together to celebrate this American tradition in the courtyard of the F-A Institute. In the picture are two American friends and one of my French friends, Mallorie (to the right of me if you’re facing the picture, in the grey jacket), with whom I got to know throughout the semester. Oh, and it was cooollddd!!! We were outside for about 45 minutes in 20 degree F weather singing christmas songs. To be quite honest with you, by the end of those 45 minutes, I was pretty done with Christmas carols… I just wanted to go find a warm, cozy place to get a drink at that point!

A picture of me and two of my French friends, Stephanie (on the left) and Valerie (you guess… on the right!) whom I got to know throughout the semester. I got in contact with them because they had posted an ad in my school building about wanting to meet an anglophone for a linguistic exchange. Of course, being interested in meeting more French people and having the opportunity to partake in a symbiotic relationship (whooaaa… bio terms are coming back to me from freshman year of high school, weird), I called them, met with them, and continued to meet with them for about once a week for a few hours, either going to their house for tea, cooking with them, going to the movies, and even playing Scrabble in English (Stephanie beat me- the anglophone didn’t even win in her own maternal tongue!…) AND French with them (I don’t even want to say how badly I lost in this game.). It was one of best experiences of my time in Rennes and I’m very happy that we’ve all agreed that we’ll stay in touch through skype, etc. Oh, and that is how I met Mallorie (two pictures above) too (linguistic exchange ad)!

My Iranian friends! Yes, somehow I ended up befriending my first 4 Iranian friends ever in France. I guess that just shows how limited my thinking was of France and much of the rest of the world before going abroad. I figured “France” meant “French” and I didn't really leave much room in my mind to meet people of other nationalities, but I learned that, similar to the US, there is a great amount of immigration to France as well! Anyways, I first met Behrouz (the guy next to me) through a linguistic exchange ad (yes, another one! Actually, there were four in all!), and I eventually got to know the other 3 through Behrouz. It has really been one of the most enriching cultural experiences I’ve ever had. And can be pretty confusing at times too! Maryam, the girl farthest to the left if you’re looking at the picture, speaks some English, hardly any French, Kurdish, and Farsi. Mobim, next to her, to my knowledge speaks pretty much just Farsi (both Maryam and Mobim just arrived to France 3 months ago and have only begun to learn French), Behrouz speaks fluent French (he’s been living in France for 12 years), Farsi, Kurd, Arabic, and is starting to learn English, and Marabin next to me speaks Farsi and French pretty well… THUS, you can imagine the madness of translation that was going on, and all the different languages that were being spoken at the same time. Still, I think it has been a really eye-opening experience for me especially since Iran and the US are on such poor political terms right now. It has been so amazing to meet these Iranians and see how they are real people who think and feel just like me and all the Americans I know. Also, it has showed me firsthand how friendship, understanding, and love really transcends even such drastic language and cultural barriers. I will really treasure this group of people, and I told them all that when I go back to the US, I will tell everyone what a nice, down-to-earth bunch of Iranians I met. I will really miss them, and I’m sad we will not have more time to get to know each other.

And last but not least, my little kiddies!!!! Here’s a picture of the class of French “petits” (little kids) that I had the great pleasure of teaching once a week throughout my stay in Rennes. It was a really great experience to have taught these kids- one of the best for sure(!) of my time in Rennes. On the last day, we celebrated at the end with some cookies- yay! I will most certainly miss them and their cute French accents when they speak English. Plus, little kids are hilarious!

And wow, well… besides that, what can I say?! It was a great semester, and although I’m sad to leave, I’m also ready to go home and see my family and friends and share all this with them (though they might get sick of me talking about it all after a while, don’t you think? ;))! Andddd, it looks like I’m going to keep writing next semester too when I’m back at Richmond, so I’ll see you all around next semester! I’m actually on my way to Lima, Peru of all places, to spend Christmas and a few weeks there with Ivan’s family. I’ll definitely update you all on my trip there and how it all went when I get back to Richmond in January. But until then, have a great vacation and happy holidays!

Bisoux,

Shannon

Amusing H20 Story and Pictures from the Region of Cornouaille

So I was recently informed of the « not so good » water in the Brittany region (where I’m residing for the semester…) by my Civilization teacher the other day in class. The whole class is about the civilization of the Brittany region from past to present to better orientate ourselves while we’re here, and to also understand what’s going on currently in Rennes, Brittany, France, etc. This last week our professor was teaching us about some of the current-day problems the region of Brittany is facing, and one of the biggest problems is actually pollution of the water(!). Agriculture is a big industry here, as well as HUGE animal farms that literally grow thousands and thousands of pigs (especially) and some cows too, I believe… anyways, I don’t want to go too into detail and gross you all out big time, but basically the pigs produce so much waste that the farmers don’t really know what to do with it, and end up using it as fertilizer. Well, normally this works if you don’t use too much, but they use A LOT, and what has happened is that it has seeped down through the soil and into the natural water ducts far below the ground. Thus, the water is you know… “slightly” contaminated by some of the chemicals in their waste. This has other repercussions for Brittany, as this water eventually feeds out into the ocean. Well, tourism is one of the biggest industries here in Brittany because there’s a lot of coastline, and thus beautiful coastal cities, etc. Well, the algae that grows in the oceans loves the chemical in the pigs waste, and it grows like crazy in the shallow waters, practically covering the shorelines and thus blocking out the beautiful views and grossing people out to the extent that they don’t want to swim in the ocean (because it’s everywhere (only in certain areas, of course)! Trust me, I saw a video… it’s everywhere and pretty nasty). I haven’t even included how bad all this alga supposedly smells… yeah, I think you get the point. So basically, bad for the people (if you drink the tap water), bad for the economy, and bad for the environment. Also, Europe has certain pollution standards, and if any country exceeds those standards, they must pay a fine. Each year, France consistently has to pay a fine because of Brittany’s water pollution. And it’s sad because it’s extremely expensive to clear the algae away/clean the water, and sometimes once-beautiful coastal towns lose all their business because of the algae. Also, even if no more fertilizer (pig waste) was used in Brittany, it would still take 40-50 years for the aqueducts to clean themselves out naturally. Not so cool Shows you that every area has its own problems specific to its region/area of industry, etc. No where’s perfect. Soooo… this all relates because my professor was telling us how, after living here for about 4 months, he started to become really sick and have problems with his stomach. He went to the doctor to figure out what was going on, and his doctor couldn’t figure out what was happening. Finally, his doctor asked him, “I know this is a stupid question, but,…(hesitating)… you don’t drink the tap water here, do you?” (Quizzical look) My professor replied (realization starting to hit him) “well… actually, I do…” And his doctor said “There you have it!” My professor had been used to being able to drink tap water because he’s from Paris, and the tap water there is fine. Anyways, this whole story and explanation shocked me because I drink tap water daily chez moi (at my house!)! I raised my hand and told my professor that I drink the tap water everyday at my house (admitting it and thus what I was drinking was a difficult thing to do… but that’s always step 1, no? ;)), and so did my family, but no one ever got sick (at least I never had), and to my knowledge, my family had been drinking the tap water here for years! He didn’t really understand how my family continued drinking it without getting sick (maybe they have Brittany stomachs of steel? or maybe their stomachs are just used to it), but told me it would take about 4 months to really start to feel the affects of it (it has to build up in your stomach over a long period of time- pretty picture, eh?). SOOO, BASICALLY, I’m finishing my study abroad program and leaving Rennes at the perfect time, because it will have been officially… 3.5 months (almost four!) since I will have been drinking the region’s tap water… *sigh of relief*. Haha, thought you’d find the whole story interesting!

Also, my CIEE group recently went on a trip to the region of Cornouaille (map below), and I wanted to show you all some pictures of this absolutely beautiful region to give you more of a taste of « La Bretagne » where I’ve been residing this semester.

The city of Pont-Aven, where, during the late 19th century, many artists such as Gauguin came to paint and find tranquility in the beautiful landscapes, and where the Pont-Aven School of Art was founded in 1888 by a group of artists.

Charming house along a river in Pont-Aven

Me standing next to a (fill-in-the-blank) in the city of Quimper. Quimper was a very cute, charming city.

Picture of the inside of “La Cathedral Saint-Corentine” at Quimper that took 3 centuries(!) to completely construct.

The coastline of Concarneau at sunset.

(From left to right) Christine (Richmond student), Amy (University of Indiana Bloomington student), Staci (one of the CIEE Rennes directors), and me in Concarneau at nighttime after taking a walk around the city.

Picture of some houses in Concarneau in the morning that overlook the sea. I took this picture because I think it’s the same one that is on the Richmond study abroad website for the CIEE Rennes program!

Picture of the ancient city of Concarneau that is enclosed by walls.

Picture of me at “La Pointe du Raz”, one of the most western points/the most western point in all of France.

Picture of me and Christine at “La Pointe du Raz”.

Some buildings in the medieval city of Locronan.

Good luck in studying for finals everyone! Can’t deny that I’m not missing that…

Some More News on the Strikes in France

Bonjour !

So I told you I’d give you an update on the strike sitch, so voilà !: the blockage is over! Well… at least no one’s tried to block the campus since last Tuesday, and that makes almost one week since there’s been no blocking happening… soooo… I would say we’re in the clear Still, I thought I would add a few more pictures of “blockage” related happenings on campus to wrap up the story on that. Also, as my last post had lots and lots of writing in it, I’ll make up for it with this post by keeping it short and sweet with lots of pictures

Me and some other American students on the morning of the 3rd Tuesday that we arrived to school at 8am in the morning only to have the campus blocked again. We were pretty frustrated even though we don’t really seem mad in this picture, but it’s supposed to be a “what the heck?!?!” kind of picture, as it was déjà vu for the third Tuesday in a row!

A picture of the infamous “Bâtiment B” with the phrase “VIVE LA COMMUNE!” written on it during the blockage.

I took a picture of this because I had originally approached this door hoping to get into the building, having forgotten that it was completely blocked. Pretty hilarious…

And now I must at least briefly touch upon some of the other strikes that have been going on in France. Well, let’s see… SNCF, which is the company that operates the railroad throughout France, has several times now gone on strike, which for them basically means not running the majority of the trains throughout France or at least between certain destinations. This is a huge inconvenience, and they know it well, because many French people rely on the railroad to get them back and forth between cities either for work, for travel- who knows what else! Anyways, they are doing this because the government has taken away their special retirement-type-plan-thing where now, instead of only having to work for the company for 37.5 years before being able to retire, they must work 40 years. The bus company in Rennes, STAR, has also gone one strike at one point, causing major inconveniences for the Rennais as well. Let’s see, who else? Oh! I can’t forget the “general strike” that happened all throughout France one day. Tons of people- even high schoolers!!!!- went on strike (pictures below), protesting against the government and their policy changes, which I find pretty cool. Governments definitely aren’t perfect, and I think it’s great for people to exercise their right to protest against what the government is doing, but not to the point of hurting the economy of the country (though that’s probably what they are trying to do to get the attention of the government…).

Inside “Bâtiment L” during a sit in of the students who were against the blockage. Basically, the blockers arrived back on campus after a manifestation so the security was going to close down all the buildings again, but the students against the blockage protested and did a sit in in the building so it would impossible to close the building. Unfortunately, we were eventually told we had to leave, but this did make an impression on the strikers- it showed them just how many students were against the blockage.

Two American friends and one Russian friend sitting down during the sit in.

Downtown during the “General Strike” day.

Need I explain? Baby on a stick... I don't really know what this represents. Your guess is as good as mine.

Strikers protesting throughout the streets- a very peaceful manifestation, mind you.

Special military police blocking the entrance to the railroad station against the approaching strikers. They were doing this because before the strikers would come and literally protest on the railways, thus preventing the trains to continue on a normal schedule.

Closer shot.

Strikers in the distance… I think they had been planning on entering the railroad station, but after seeing the special military police, thought better of doing that… I mean, wouldn’t you?

And to finish this post, I’ll add another of my “slang” English conversations that the French students in my class are learning since I didn’t add it in the last post like I said I would (it was already too long, wouldn’t you say?) and to give you all another good laugh:

Conversation n°2

- Arthur is in a jam. You remember he wanted to buy a TV set?

- So what? It fell apart?

- Exactly. He bought a lemon. It’s been on the blink ever since he took it home. The shop set him up, no doubt. I had always thought those guys were not on the level.

- Fly-by-night, eh? Could he get an agreement with them?

- Not a snowball’s chance in hell! They say it’s his fault. They want him to cough up a hundred more euros for the repairs.

- That’s nothing to sneeze at. He should have double-checked, shouldn’t he? Unfortunately I can’t bail him out. I’m hard up these days.

- So am I. Maybe we could fix the set for him?

- Not me, good God! I’m all thumbs when it comes to electronics.

- Peter’s always handy. Let’s ask him.

…. Bizarre, huh?

Happy December!

Au revoir!

Boy, do the French love their strikes!

It’s a Tuesday, and I’m sitting in my afternoon translation class from English to French. About 15 minutes before the end of class, scraping sounds are starting to be heard out in the hallway. They continue for the next 10 or so minutes, and more and more students in my class (there are about 50 or so in all) start to whisper more furiously and are clearly distracted, yet the professor pushes on. Suddenly, the door to the class opens, and a male college student enters through the door and yells “Il y a un blocage!”, which means “There’s a blockage!”. I’m still confused by everything that’s happening. I don’t understand what “blockage” means. Then, as the student is leaving our classroom, my teacher practically forces the door to close on him and tells him, “No! We have 5 minutes of class left!” (But in French, of course :))The whole class is obviously agitated and excited, whispers now audible conversations, jumping around the room like electric current. My persistent teacher continues to read aloud the text we’re working on translating, despite the growing sounds of heavy metal things being pushed along the hallway floor outside. After what seems like an eternity, those five minutes finish and as students rush out of the classroom, my teacher yells after them “Send the homework to my e-mail address even if there is a blockage!!!”. I don’t have to wait long to find out what’s going on. As I exit the classroom, I look to my left and voilà!!!!

Then I turn around to look in the other direction, which is the way I normally exit the building (not like I could go out the door to my left anyways!), and see this:

I’m still wondering what a “blockage” exactly is, as I’ve never heard of anything like this is the US, but with the new desks, tables, and chairs all around me, I’m starting to get the picture. I don’t know why it’s happening, but I soon run into a few of the French monitors who specifically work with the international students at CIREFE (the program for foreign students not yet fluent in French at University Rennes II). They begin to explain to me that there was an General Assembly meeting in front of one of the key buildings, “Bâtiment B” or “Building B”, and that when the students voted whether or not to block the University, the majority had been in favor of the blockage. Thus, what was happening…

The main entrance to a building blocked from the inside with desk, chairs, etc.

Now let me backtrack just a little bit to explain this whole General Assembly thing really quickly. I’m still unclear on many details myself, but it’s kind of like student government, thus comprised of only students, but it has way more power that our student governments in the US, and it seems to have strong politically “left” tendencies. The General Assemblies always happen outside of one of the buildings, “Building B”, and the speakers (or whoever wants to speak at all) get up on the stairs and speak to the crowds below through a microphone/sound system. A picture of one of these going on is below.

General Assembly meeting going on outside of Building B

Food raid(?) of the cafeteria in Building B after the blockage began

Sooo… basically the story behind the whole blockage begins last August, when the French government in Paris voted to give the public university system in all of France autonomy. Usually this sounds like a good deal, but basically that means that they’re withdrawing major financial support from the public university system, which most of the students attend. Since the French Revolution, the French have been concerned with equality among their citizens, thus the words they hold so dear: “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité”. I believe it was after World War II when the French government took on full responsibility to provide health care to all of the French people, as well as provide the payment of public education. Many French students have told me that this is a French ideal that is based on the notion that it’s a basic human right to have access to health care and education, among other things, and that no one should be deprived of that because of money. That being said, going to a public French university costs little to nothing, and also the system is uniform in the sense that this is practically no order of competition among the public universities like in the US. Of course there are exceptions here and there, but it’s nothing like, “Oh, I go to UCLA”, “Yeah, I go to UC Merced” (a very new public UC school in CA that’s near Yosemite and very small!!). Those are both public California schools, but everyone knows that it’s much more difficult to get into UCLA than it is to get into UC Merced (not to mention UCLA’s reputation), and that even though they both receive money from the state of California, it’s a given that UCLA gets a lot more money in private donations, etc., especially due to its location. In France, there’s no real difference in competition among the public schools like that. You can’t say, “Oh, I go to Rennes II” and feel smarter or more accomplished than the other student who’s going to the University in Lille instead. It’s just not like that. The government gives each public university the same money, there is a fixed income for the professors nation-wide, so one school can’t pay their professors more money and thus become a more desireable school. Also, as far as I know, French students can apply to any public university and go there if they desire. There’s nothing like the SAT to stop you. Of course, there are exceptions to everything I’m saying. For instance, I’ve been told that “La Sorbonne”, which is familiar even among most Americans, is evidently a school that is an exception to all this, among others. Because of its location in a rich part of Paris, it is able to receive more funding, and not just any student can choose to go there. What this “Loi d’Autonomie (LRU)” “Law of Autonomy” does is it makes universities instead depend in part on private companies, etc. etc. because they need to get further funding from somewhere if the government is going to no longer be paying the bill. As unemployment is a huge problem facing France right now, as well as national debt (though I don’t think it’s anywhere close to that of the US’s), the government thinks it would be good for French companies to get involved with the colleges so that it’d be easier for French students to find a job upon graduating. They say that this will decrease unemployment in France and in the long run (short run?), be a benefit for French students. However, it appears to me like the majority of students are extremely opposed to this law, as it increases the tuition fee (only a little at the beginning, but many tell me it is certain to increase little by little each year- just like the tuition fees at the US schools), and makes the universities in some ways precariously dependant on private companies since they will be the ones controlling the funds. Also, I guess something similar to this has happened before at some city in south France where a big company that was located near one of the universities started having students literally get their degree in a specialized field specific to their company. I guess things went sour somehow, the company moved away (or disbanded or something), and what was left were hundreds of students with a useless degree for anything else. This is another of the fears of the students. Interestingly enough, the law is to make the French university system more like that of the US’s, but from my impressions gathered from the French students, they don’t seem to want it at all. Actually, one of the big arguments I’ve heard against the law is that the students don’t want a system like that of the US’s. I’ve talked with other American students studying abroad with me about it, and they are split on the issue. Some think it will be a good thing to help solve the unemployment issue inFrance, as well as release the government of a good share of money that has traditionally gone to funding the public universities. I have mixed feelings myself about the whole issue, but it doesn’t seem to be a very “French” decision (traditionally, at least).France is not the United States, and the United States is not France. They have different systems that work in different ways, don’t work in other ways, and there are always new things being modified and changed to make improvements, etc. etc. But of course with the new government since Sarkozy’s election, France is changing!!! And many French don’t seem to be crazy about it. Mind you, some do (which is why he was elected, I guess). Have I mentioned yet how much the majority of students strongly dislike Sarkozy? My host mom thinks he’s great, but then again, I suppose that’s going to forever be a stereotype that is often proven true about political differences/ideologies/preferences between the older and the younger.

Picture of a group of students protesting against the blockage the day it first happened

“Call from Rouen” (French city where a university is located) flyer posted around campus asking the students at Rennes II to join them in the blockage as an act against the government.

Poster in the infamous “Bâtiment B” listing other French Universities on strike with a blockage.

So, the blockage started 3 weeks ago, and it’s officially stopped and started since then… let’s see… at least a half dozen times. It’s complicated, you see. Basically, there’s a growing group of students that are against the blockage and want classes to resume (whoops, I seem to have forgotten to mention that the blockage is intended to prevent students, professors, etc. from entering the building, so basically it’s a strike and there are no classes). The majority of these students are against the Law of Autonomy, yet they still don’t want classes to stop. One of the big reasons why is because there was a 13 week strike (pretty much 3 months! That’s practically the entirety of the semester!!) just a year and a half ago or so. I’m unclear as to the cause of the strike (it was another law having to do with education most certainly), but basically the students were on strike for most of the semester, and then still had to take their finals and all at the very end of the semester. Can you imagine? I would most certainly fail, and I’m sure there were more students than normal that did. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there are still many students still getting their degree who were in school when the strike happened a year and a half ago, and they are [what I assume to be] at their wits end with strikes, especially if it concerns their education/getting their degree on time/doing well on their finals. I don’t blame them in the least. Also, in the strike that happened 1.5 years ago, even the classes for the foreign students at CIREFE (where I take the majority of my classes) were not allowed to continue, despite their not being French and having nothing to do with the French political problem. Consequently, hundreds of foreign students went home mid-semester, not having earned any credits, and having lost their money. It was a big flop. I am very fortunate because despite the strike happening at the actual school, the CIREFE professors and staff have found locations for us to have class off-campus. Go them!!! They’re really dedicated and quite honestly great people. So, I’m still having class minus my two translation classes I normally have at the school (luckily my CIEE program director corresponded with some of the English professors at the University, and it looks like we’re still going to be able to have our papers graded and have finals even if the strike persists for some time!). Unfortunately, the French students aren’t. Every Tuesday since Tuesday November 6, classes have been supposed to resume, so every Tuesday I’ve gone to the actual University (CIREFE has planned for them to be held on-campus those days since the President of the University has literally announced himself that classes would be resuming) to have class beginning at 8am, only to find the buildings blocked again.

“Checkpoint” in front of one of the entrances to one of the buildings to see if the “blockers” feel you have a worthy reason to enter the building (i.e. being a foreign student, etc.)

For the first week of the strike, foreign students were allowed to resume classes- just not the French students- but after the first week, the French students in favor of the blockage decided that all the students were going to be “blocked” from their classes, including the foreign students (I guess they want this to put more pressure on the government??? That’s all I can figure at least). However, the first week of the strike when I was still going to class on campus, I had to go past this “check point” type thing. It was so weird. I had to tell a group of “blockers” (students who are enforcing the “block”) that I was a foreign student, and that I was allowed to pass. It’s evident to them who’s a foreign student and who’s not. They can easily tell by our language abilities/funny accents, but sheesh! I couldn’t believe it. It was kind of unreal. The picture above is a picture I took from a window of one of the buildings of the “check point” below (pretty laid back check point, wouldn’t you say?).

Assembly General meeting going on.

So you may be wondering (like I still am), how the students are allowed to continue like this. I mean, shouldn’t this have all been stopped within the first hour it started? Police arrive, administration enters, “blockers” get kicked out of the buildings, classes resume….??? Well, it’s not nearly as easy as that at all. I’ve been told that it’s kind of an “unspoken truth” that the only two places where the French police are forbidden are churches and French Universities. I find the latter example pretty hilarious, but it’s true! Ever since the 1960s when there were the infamous riots in Paris with the French students and the French police, it’s a rare thing to ever seen any police on campus. Now, I still don’t really understand this, and am still shocked by this, but I guess French students are known for despising the police and not being afraid to “push back” if you catch my drift. Thus, the police try and stay as far away from and as far as they can out of French student life at the universities. Mostly for safety reasons, the President of the Rennes II has closed down the University several times when classes were supposed to resume these past three weeks. The first time they were supposed to resume, “blockers” with iron rods were waiting in front of the doors of the buildings when the school security guards came to unlock the buildings in the early morning, so the President decided to play it safe and closed down the University for a few days. There have also been some votes to see what the students really want instead of doing the traditional and extremely faulty voting system of raising your two hands and having the people look out at the crowd and take the vote like that. The first one was held by the administration in one of the buildings, and students were allowed to come and vote between a period of several hours. You had to present your student ID (because many people that come to the General Assembly meetings to vote by the “raising your two hands” method aren’t actually students of the University, but friends of the “blockers”, thus giving their vote to the blockage unfairly) to be able to vote. In the end, it was something like 60% of students against the blockage, 40% for the blockage. Thus, classes were supposed to resume. However, the blockers accused the administration of manipulating the vote. That will forever be one of the problems with democracies, no? Then, just last Thursday and Friday, there was another vote online, and this time there were around 70% of students against the blockage, 25% for the blockage, and about 5% who chose to abstain. Again, classes were supposed to resume on Monday or Tuesday, and again the blockers accused the administration of manipulating the vote. At this point, I would have to say that it’s the blockers who are being extremely forceful and undemocratic, and that that is one of the reasons for the growing number of students against the blockage.

There’s still so much to say about the blockage and all the rest of the other strikes (yes, there have been many more!) going on in France right now, but I’m afraid this post is getting long to the point of warding off readers, so I’ll stop here, but I will continue with this whole topic in my next post in the next few days.

I guess something I’m learning from this is to not take advantage of going to class. I mean, this is just a minor example in being deprived of your education, but there really are so many students out there in other countries (or even in the US!) who do want to go to school- want to get an education- but can’t for some reason or another. So at least appreciate that you can go to class today! Also, it’s a pretty “hands on” lesson in French culture. Boy do they love their strikes! Pretty interesting to witness this all first hand!

I’ll update you all on the situation soon! Au revoir!