Ok, we GET it, France only works so they can STRIKE

My life would be hilarious if I wasn't living it right now... I was really looking forward to our "Activite Culturelle" this evening, a vocal performance of Ravel's hhmohmfsj. I forget the name, but it was singing, and I was so excited... The director postponed the concert until ??? because of the strike. There's a huge demonstration planned for tomorrow with all of the teachers in France, even middle school and elementary teachers, NO ONE has class... On top of that, there's a "greve generale" which means half the metros and commuter trains will not be running. But the director canceled the concert because it would have been at the Sorbonne, and he was worried people would try to stay in the building overnight to demonstrate...

In other news, I'm going to Spain with Emily!! We're going to Barcelona next Friday, and I was able to find a flight that was less than $200! Of course, looking back at my itinerary this morning, I realized that my flight doesn't actually fly into Barcelona, it flies into Reus, a town 60 miles and an 1:30 minute bus ride out from Barcelona. If I go out that Thurs night like I've done the past two weeks, I'll get up for class the next morning, grab lunch on the way to the bus stop to get me to the Beauvais airport, check in, fly, take another bus to Barcelona, and have to find my way to the hostel to meet Emily in a stange land where I don't speak the language... PS, the cost of buses is going to make up the difference between my ticket and one that goes to a bigger airport (Reus is the smallest in Spain, apparently. They have shuttles lined up with flights from my carrier because they're the only ones that go there...). BUT I'll be in Spain for the weekend for under $400 which is what it would have cost me just to fly to Prague.

In other news, I don't see my host brother around much. He's almost never hear, and when he is I just see him in passing, long enough to say, "Bonjour," or "Salut, ca va?" and then he's off again or I'm headed out. At dinner today, my host mother mused about why. She said she'd talked to her friend who takes in foreign exchange students and who had 4 sons. "Is he in love?" "No," my host mother told her. "I don't think that's it..." "Then he's jealous." My host mother thinks this is the isssue. Since I'm here, they've had to take care of me like another child, in a sense. This takes attention away from him, so he's jealous, she says. In any case, he apparently told her when they were applying for the host family position, "If it's a girl, I won't live here anymore." They didn't specify a preference to my program and told their son, "Well, we have to wait and see." Poof! Girl arrives, son disappears. He doesn't come home because I'm in the next room.

I still have nowhere to go for Easter weekend, when I'm supposed to have alternative housing arrangements; it's part of my housing contract. So... I may try to go to Milan with another girl from my program cuz I kind of have my heart set on visiting Italy and apparently it's really cheap to get there. Dunno. Still up in the air, like everything. :)

Random news: Ian H friended me on facebook today. I was embarassed to ask myself, did he go to high school with us? Now that I think of it, wasn't he on the football team? I think I always thought that was funny because he was so petit... My last vivid memory of that kid was tricking him into following us into the ladies room during a cub scout pinewood derby... in elementary school. I mean, I do have other memories of him more recently than that, but for whatever reason that's the one that stands out the most. He looks the same now but taller. It's weird sort-of hearing from people you haven't talked to in... years. It just kind of brought me back to the Toffolon and MSP days...