On the other hand, I understand a bit better why people in France are still resisting the reform. My Mom sent me some USA Today articles on the strikes which I was reading with Gisele today and we were remarking over the way the manifestations were being represented in the American media. For the most part, the press is leaving out the peaceful demonstrations, and only publishing sensational photographs from cities where the manifestations turn violent at the end when people who may not have necessarily been part of the protest, come in to stir up trouble (Lyon, Marseille). We both agreed that sensational photography was typically journalistic in any county however. The articles also left out how French people who strike during the week and not just on Saturdays are giving up a day’s work of their salary.
Gisele has worked her whole life as a teacher and has planned for some years now to have the upcoming years free to travel and immerse herself more fully in the languages she has been studying (English and Greek). While I don’t believe that if you retire at 62 rather than 60 you are going right from work to the tomb (as some people here have claimed), I understand that it is destabilizing to have years you had planned on having for yourself taken away in a sense. I am thinking right now of my Dad and many other people I know in the US whose retirements have been unexpectedly prolonged due to the economy, sending kids to college (another thing the French do not have to worry about as many of their universities cost a few hundred euros), taking care of aging relatives, etc. and how we kind of accept it as part of life that work might infringe more than we hoped/expected on our lives, so what is the big fuss about working 2 more years to the ripe old age of 62?
I guess to understand the strikes here you have to understand that, on a basic level (and please pardon my gross generalizations), people here work to live not live to work. Evidence of this can be seen even in the languages, as in the US if someone asked you “What do you do?” you would understand the implied “for work?” and respond accordingly. In French, if you asked someone “que’est ce que vous faites?” They would most likely look at you blankly thinking you were asking them what they do in the most general terms, or what they are doing in that moment, and it is necessary to add the “comme travail?” to get the response you are looking for.
To bring my diatribe to a close: I can understand why people like Gisele and some of the teachers at my school are striking against the reform and even how striking is very much a part of the culture here (I even heard someone call it a 4th branch of government), yet it still bothers me that high school students are making me walk an extra 10 minutes to get to work! Alas, my patience and understanding can only go so far…
Somewhat ironically, on Monday and Tuesday I did some lessons on Election Day in the US with my students. So that they understood the lesson more fully I tried to draw comparisons between our 2 political parties and some of the parties they have in France. We deduced that the Republicans are more like the UMP (Sarkozy) and the Front National (right party) in economic terms and that the Democrats share some beliefs with the Socialist and Communist parties. Roughly speaking. You should have seen the looks on their faces when I told them we in the US consider France to be a Socialist country. You see, my darling 15 year olds like to consider themselves true Socialists and think of Sarkozy and his administration as as far right as it gets. They were scandalized to hear the term Socialist applied to someone as undeserving as him. I then tried to explain that, relatively speaking, many of the social goods they receive in France (their health care, their Sécu Sociale) align more with Socialism than the Democracy we operate under, although many people in our country think this is changing. When I showed them some photos of Tea Party demonstrators bearing signs denouncing Obama as a Socialist, they said “But we don’t understand, in the US Socialism is considered bad?” I didn’t anticipate that it would take longer than once class period to get into ideological differences stemming from out nations’ founding. A lesson for another day.
Thursday was a jour férié as it is Armistice Day of WWI. Since I don’t work Wednesdays or Fridays, I was as of Tuesday, on a 5 day weekend. Seriously, who needs to strike with all these vacations?
I have been having very relaxing days and spending a lot of time hanging out around the house with Gisele and Gabriella and getting to know them better which I like very much. I am definitely learning how to slow down a bit here and not constantly feel like I need to be doing something besides getting to know my roommates more, practicing my French around the house, cooking, and writing in my blog. All things that make me very happy!
Wednesday night I attended a crémaillère, or a house warming party, at a French girls’ new studio which was very enjoyable and I got to practice my language skills and meet some more Frenchies. The past few days I have been speaking mostly in French, and switching over less from English and I have definitely noticed a difference in the facility that the words come to me in French. I make a lot more careless errors when I am speaking half the day in English.
OK well that’s all for now. A bientôt. Bises. TGIF.
Linz
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