Bonjour à tous et toutes!
I hope that you are all doing well!
So this week has certainly been a unique one, in some ways good, in some pretty crappy.
This week began with a day off, which I spent relaxing with my host family, and trying to get a bit of work done. Tuesday brought classes and my teaching internship -- to my surprise, I started working with a new class on Tuesday, who I'll be working with every Tuesday from here on out.
Wednesday was not a fun day. Wednesday morning I found out about the death of Emma Cook, a fellow member of SU's class of 2018, of GSA, and someone with whom I had had a few classes last year. She was an impressive woman, and I'm sad to hear of her passing, and to be so far away from my SU family in this horrible time. On top of this news, Wednesday afternoon I found out that my host mother's brother had died. She left Thursday morning to spend a few days with her family, only coming back last night (Saturday) after the funeral. I was devastated for her, but didn't know what to do to help. Needless to say, Wednesday was not a good day.
With Thursday came the strikes (grèves) and protests (manifestations) that were anticipated and nationwide, bringing many French out to protest the potential changes to the Code du Travail (Work Code/Laws). While I still had my teaching internship in the morning, classes at the university had been cancelled because the protestors had decided to block the university. Buses were also rerouted for the day, because they knew that the protests would block buses from getting downtown. Originally, the buses were only supposed to be rerouted for a few hours in the middle of the day, but they actually didn't run in town from noon on. So I did a lot of walking.
Thursday wound up being a fun day, although the two times that I encountered the protests were certainly unique enough to stay with me for a long time. The first time I saw them I was waiting for some friends near the metro. As I looked over at the crowd I noticed that some of the protestors began running away from where they had been gathered, because something had led the police to shoot off tear gas into the crowd. I quickly left. Then the second time the protestors were walking down the road toward a big square near another metro stop, wine in one hand, lunch in the other.
Apparently it's rather normal for looters/troublemakers to join into protests just so that they can wreak havoc, as was the case on Thursday. I watched some videos of the protests later on, and it was crazy to see how violent some people became with the police and each other.
On Friday I only had one class, so it was a pretty calm day. I spent a lot more time wandering through Rennes this week, because the weather has finally gotten a bit nicer. Friday night I went out for dinner and drinks with a group of friends, because many of us are going our separate ways for this two week break, so we wanted to have a last night of fun before break started.
Yesterday (Saturday) was a very calm day. I, once again, went out and walked around Rennes, then came home to do some homework and call my family.
But, today (Sunday) is where the word of the week comes in. Today we are celebrating my oldest host brother (Yoann)'s 29th birthday. We're not doing anything huge, but we are going to have a nice lunch, with ample desserts :) I'm excited to see what a French birthday meal looks like, and to get to share this experience with my wonderful host family.
So that's about it, as you can see, my week was a bit all over the place, so I'm looking forward to having this next week to relax (then I get to see my dad and step-mom!).
I hope your weeks were not as crazy as mine, and that you are having a wonderful weekend!
A la prochaine fois!
Evelyn
I hope that you are all doing well!
So this week has certainly been a unique one, in some ways good, in some pretty crappy.
This week began with a day off, which I spent relaxing with my host family, and trying to get a bit of work done. Tuesday brought classes and my teaching internship -- to my surprise, I started working with a new class on Tuesday, who I'll be working with every Tuesday from here on out.
Wednesday was not a fun day. Wednesday morning I found out about the death of Emma Cook, a fellow member of SU's class of 2018, of GSA, and someone with whom I had had a few classes last year. She was an impressive woman, and I'm sad to hear of her passing, and to be so far away from my SU family in this horrible time. On top of this news, Wednesday afternoon I found out that my host mother's brother had died. She left Thursday morning to spend a few days with her family, only coming back last night (Saturday) after the funeral. I was devastated for her, but didn't know what to do to help. Needless to say, Wednesday was not a good day.
With Thursday came the strikes (grèves) and protests (manifestations) that were anticipated and nationwide, bringing many French out to protest the potential changes to the Code du Travail (Work Code/Laws). While I still had my teaching internship in the morning, classes at the university had been cancelled because the protestors had decided to block the university. Buses were also rerouted for the day, because they knew that the protests would block buses from getting downtown. Originally, the buses were only supposed to be rerouted for a few hours in the middle of the day, but they actually didn't run in town from noon on. So I did a lot of walking.
Thursday wound up being a fun day, although the two times that I encountered the protests were certainly unique enough to stay with me for a long time. The first time I saw them I was waiting for some friends near the metro. As I looked over at the crowd I noticed that some of the protestors began running away from where they had been gathered, because something had led the police to shoot off tear gas into the crowd. I quickly left. Then the second time the protestors were walking down the road toward a big square near another metro stop, wine in one hand, lunch in the other.
Apparently it's rather normal for looters/troublemakers to join into protests just so that they can wreak havoc, as was the case on Thursday. I watched some videos of the protests later on, and it was crazy to see how violent some people became with the police and each other.
On Friday I only had one class, so it was a pretty calm day. I spent a lot more time wandering through Rennes this week, because the weather has finally gotten a bit nicer. Friday night I went out for dinner and drinks with a group of friends, because many of us are going our separate ways for this two week break, so we wanted to have a last night of fun before break started.
Yesterday (Saturday) was a very calm day. I, once again, went out and walked around Rennes, then came home to do some homework and call my family.
But, today (Sunday) is where the word of the week comes in. Today we are celebrating my oldest host brother (Yoann)'s 29th birthday. We're not doing anything huge, but we are going to have a nice lunch, with ample desserts :) I'm excited to see what a French birthday meal looks like, and to get to share this experience with my wonderful host family.
So that's about it, as you can see, my week was a bit all over the place, so I'm looking forward to having this next week to relax (then I get to see my dad and step-mom!).
I hope your weeks were not as crazy as mine, and that you are having a wonderful weekend!
A la prochaine fois!
Evelyn