Les greves

Okay, so new French experience of the day: Les greves, or strikes that basically immobialize the city. They are announced ahead of time, to give people time to plan otherwise, I guess? But we were told through an email from the Dson Center that the Tisseo (bus/metro company) was striking, so plan extra time to get places, etc. Apparently, a lot of municipally-run things also strike in show of solidarity. For example: our university classes were cancelled, post offices and libraries were closed. So that was kind of nice, no classes for Caitlin today! But we really needed to do research at the big city library, so that part was kind of a pain. And then when Annie and I were walking towards Rue du Metz, a major road that runs across the city, the whole road was closed and huge crowds of people were marching down the road carrying signs and chanting and singing. And apparently strikes are a big part of life in France, and people kind of just deal with them like they are no big deal.





And also today, my host sister Alix, who is 7, asked me if I knew what Christmas was. Like I come from some crazy nation, not like the United States.

And for our project on the gardens of Toulouse, Annie and I "interviewed" my host sisters, because they always go to the gardens to play, and we thought it would be a cute angle to take. And it was. Alix, always the little unintentional comedian, when asked what her favorite part of the Jardin des Plantes was, responded: "The plants". Hilarious. ;-)