La Grève

As many of you know France has been on a strike the last few weeks. What does the strike entail you might ask? Well, the high school students don't go to class, instead they wait outside the university playing guitars around a bonfire. They also stacked all the dumpsters in front of the gateway so no one can get in. At the university it's the same thing except that they stacked desks and chairs in front of the doorways and some of them are sleeping in the school.

Luckily, they leave one side door open for study abroad students which we have to knock on before they will let us in. I do feel bad walking through their strike to go to my class and I always get some weird looks. Other industries that are on strike in my region are the buses, trains, garbage men (yup, there are stacks of garbage lining the streets) and gas stations.

As far as the political reasons for the strike, the main purpose of the strike to resist the government bill to change the retirement age. Here is a good article that explains everything in easy terms:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/10/21/france.pension.strikes/index.html

Also, if you'd like to watch one of the protests here is a quick look into what it's like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXtxXlo5t6Y&feature=related