Greve, Examen, Correcteur

So, if you haven't heard (which is quite possible, as I assume the entirety of my readership is American and so generally unconcerned with non-American happenings), the Paris metro system went on strike yesterday. We were, of course, aware of this ahead of time, so we were able to plan, but it's nevertheless posed at least a vague inconvenience.

Anyway, they're pissed because Sarkozy, the new president who's douchey and conservative, is going to cut, I believe, their retirement benefits, so they've gone on greve (strike) and kind of brought the city to its knees. Traffic was apparently a nightmare yesterday, unsurprisingly, and, of course, you were pretty much fucked if you didn't have a car. Some people continued working, but most lines, aside from the main couple automated ones, were only running around 1-in-10 of their average trains. It was decided amongst us students that this was a good argument for mechanical outsourcing, and I personally decreed that this was a catastrophe in that it vaguely inconvenienced me.

Anyway, since the line was disabled, our teacher came and taught in the common metting space at our dorm, so thankfully (!) we could still have class. Our last day of class. Good times.

Then we were free for the rest of the day, but with the Metro down, there wasn't all that much to do. Pretty much we just sat around the dorm, correcting our papers for corrector section the next day and studying for our first final the next day (end of first compressed quarter!) while kind of going cabin crazy. The whole thing was very Boccaccio, as we played about safely within our brightly colored walls as the world fell to pieces outside.

There was much speculation as to whether the next day would see a continuation of the greve and thus be a "snow day." Hope ran high. I made myself an open-faced mortadella ham sandwich and plopped a couple of fried eggs on the top. I felt like a gourmet. Decadence.

Anyway, we got an email late that night that said the test would be on the next morning (it would have been cancelled if the greve had continued), so I got to bed around 2 after some not-so-intense studying mixed with plenty of very intense horseplay.

I woke up at 730 this morning and it was fucking dark out. I was confused and frightened, but after checking both clocks and seeing that it really was 730, I soldiered on with my shower. We were all getting up early so that we wouldn't be taking chances with the metro. When we got there, though, it really wasn't as bad as all that. Supposedly it was running 1-in-3 trains on our line, but we must have caught it right, because it came quickly. There definitely seemed to be 3 times the regular people, though, and by halfway down the line, we were in full-on sardine mode. Nevertheless, things ran pretty smoothly, and we got at the center quite early, so we had little breakfast pasteries and waited and studied.

The test itself was pretty simple, though, like usual, I regretted various decisions I had made in the organization of my essay. Whatever, though. I at least had things to say and got it done. It can't be that bad, and now it's over, which is most of what I really want.

I got myself a quiche for lunch as a present for being a good student, and then sat around for three hours making corrections to my paper. It's an almost 5-hour wait until my corrector appointment, since I'm last in line and they're 75 minutes long this time. We'll see if we use all of that. It's going to be hell. I don't really like him. I can go on at length in the future, if anyone wants.

So, I will finally get out of here at fucking six. Then, I have to quickly find something to eat and then brave the Metro system again to get to Conversation session tonight. We're supposed to all go out and see movies in our groups, so our group is going to see something called Un Secret that looks like a rather dour drama and I'm not sure how I feel about yet. I guess I'm kind of prejudiced against it, since there's a one-night-only double-feature of two of Joe Sarno's Swedish sex films at the Cinematheque Francaise that I would rather be seeing. Oh well, tant pis pour moi.

At least the weekend should be relatively free, since we're between classes and thus I should only have stylistics exercises (and finishing the paper). If the Metro gets back in order again (it's currently at 50%, I hear), then there seems to be the possibility for fun to occur. With any luck.