Catching Up

Apologies again for the lack of an update, but things have really slowed down this last two weeks and there hasn't really been anything exciting to write about! Let's see. Last week and this week are really just about trucking out. The only really big things right now are the upcoming papers that are due and the greves. If you've heard ANYTHING about France in the news, its about the strikes that are happening all over the country. Yesterday was the biggest day to date. Alison and I decided to go to the RU for lunch. When we got to Commerce, the center of town, we ran into what appeared to be a giant parade. It was all of the grevists, marching, singing, chanting, waving flags over a dozen city blocks, at least. I could hardly believe how many people there were, and we're only the 6th largest city in the country. I wish I could have seen some of them in Paris. Today things have died down a bit, the buses and trams are working again. The big problem now is still the trains. Service is inconsistent at best, and even those trains that do work are sometimes blockaded. I'm really worried about whether our train will get to Caen this weekend. This trip is the thing I have been looking forward to the most all semester, and if the trains don't work I will WALK to Normandy. To be a history major studying in France and to not see the D-Day sites would be near sacrilegious. I've also done a lot of math, and instead of going to Madrid I am now trying to get to either Brussels or Strasbourg. It would either be the weekend after this one or the following, because after that there's only one weekend left and then I am coming home! The trick is, before I get there I've got to get through next week, which is going to be a killer, then finals. Next Tuesday my Palestine paper is due, 2-3 pages on the effects of the Six-Day War on the Palestinians. Then Wednesday is my second grammar final, and I NEED to rock it. Thursday is when the evil killer Atlantic World paper is due....6-8 pages on "The French Presence in South America: Origins, Forms, and Destinies". The following Tuesday is my EU paper, 4-6 pages on Aristide Briand. These wouldn't be so bad...except they're all in French, and I still suck at writing French. Ugh!!
The bright spots on the horizon are tomorrow and this weekend. Tomorrow is our big "Thanksgiving" dinner through IES. All of the host families and their students are invited, I'm really excited to see how it will turn out. We're all getting dressed up, a couple of girls are singing, someone is going to play the guitar and Derek is doing something on the piano. I think it will be nice, at least until I have to get back to my papers! Speaking of which....


http://movies.aol.com/movie/the-other-boleyn-girl/26713/main