Je pense donc je suis en grève

Wednesday December 16, 2009 - Je pense donc je suis en grève.

This quote is too-stereotypically plastered on a poster on one of my buildings at the university. It means, “I think, so I'm on strike”.

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later: the (in)famous French strike. Now, I been living in Paris for almost 5 months now (wow, btw) and until this point there have only been transportation strikes for other trains besides mine. (Other types of strikes naturally exist all the time such as the Post Office Strike or the Museum Strike and I heard the Eiffel Tower was on strike too awhile ago…no, really!)The RER A (one of the big trains that run through Paris and into the suburbs) has been on strike now for a little over a week or so and apparently I am losing my fresh-perspective for blog-worthy material. See, I just thought it was a pain, not news to anyone until I talked to my Dad on the phone…thus, per request, the French strike report!

On a normal school day, I take my metro line to a bigger station to switch to the RER to get to class. This takes about 45 minutes porte à porte or door to door. My first commute during a strike: 2 ½ hours. I heard that 1 out of every 2 trains was running, so not a problem I just left early for my 1:00pm class. Well, when I arrived at the ghost town aka my RER station I became aware that 1 of 2 was running during rush hour. Oh. So, back to the metro I go to switch to a different metro that will take me as far west as possible and from there take a bus (you can start laughing at this point). When I finally get to that station, about an hour into my commute time, I find that there are exactly 22 buses, twenty-two buses, that depart from there. So, I stood there looking at this map that is INSANE, all the while freezing mind you, and finally walked away and asked someone in a uniform. So, I managed to wind my way around the massive station/underground city to find my bus; which I did! And then continued to stalk the other riders to see if any of them were headed to my destination…I found some! Aaaaaand followed them. Oooon the 10 minute walk from our stop to the university. Heeheehee…

And, PS there is a much simpler way to get to school that I now know so no worries about me walking in the dark to a random bus somewhere. But that reminds me, did you know it is dark in Paris? Like the sun comes up at 8:30am and sets at 5:00pm! That means almost all of my walks to and from the metro station to my apartment are in the dark; it gets confusing! Is it morning? Where am I going? Is it 3am? Did I set my alarm right? Am I going to work or school? What color are my pants? Wait, no that really happened…I didn’t know I was wearing gray pants instead of jeans until I got into the well-lit metro station. So much for be some glamorous Parisian; I guess the first step would be to turn on the light when picking out my clothing! Duh.

I’m almost surprised that I don’t get lost or disoriented more often. Today, Rema and I went shopping in an RER station…that’s right an underground multi-level mall in the middle of Les Halles, a tangled meeting point for 3 RER trains and 5 metro lines. We managed to find our way in, buy Christmas dresses, and then find our way back out again…I feel sorry for tourists!