Loko for Katie at Yeasayer :)

 

Lady Gaga - Alejandro

Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love

Le bisou à Paris

Oct 21, 2010

Yeasayer - I Remember

Gorillaz-On Melancholy Hill

STRIKE

It's interesting.  It seems the French are able to hold successful strikes, unlike Americans, because they don't have thousands of people so desperate for work that they will work for any amount.  In America, you can't threaten to strike because if you do, someone else will just take your job and you will have nothing.  Not so in France apparently...not that there aren't hundreds of people searching/willing to work here, but they will not get hired.  Here it's a combination of strong unions, racism and anti-immigrant working laws that keep the French able to fight back.  Workers still rule over here; unfortunately, so does racism.

http://www.leprogres.fr/fr/article/4015328/La-place-Bellecour-coupee-du-monde.html

There's one answer; it's at the back...and don't look!!

Chocolat

Wanna see my feet?!

Dr. Dog Heart It Races

My foot is not broken and I found a place to live

Went to the ER to get x-rays and my foot is officially not broken!  They asked me when I had broken it before, but as far as  I know I never have.  Maybe it healed quickly or something?  It had been a month since my incident.  lol.  Je sais pas.  When I broke my arm it healed in 2 weeks..whatever the case is, I'm relieved.  In other news, I found a place!  It is off line 9, 2nd to last stop!  The weird part is I'm living with this lady and her son.  The students floor is above theirs (there are 2 other students living there, one from Romania and the other from Moldova) and we share the big kitchen.  It's cool, cheap.  440/m and a nice room with a slanted ceiling and a skylight!  HOWEVER, the bathroom is awful!  I think the pipes or the walls or something is full of mold.....ew.  And the shower head sounds like a hornets nest.  Luckily, I don't usually spend too much time in the bathroom so I guess that's ok.  Here is the view from my skylight, and I'll put pictures up of the room next time I'm home.  Also, France is on strike again before I've even started teaching.  Vive la France!

Pinic

By chance, we managed to find a little gazebo to shelter us from the rain that started as we were about to eat our sandwiches.  We were soon joined by a group of french kiddies and their caretakers.

Watching kids play is one of the most entertaining things to do.  They just run around and fall down, making games out of the fallen leaves or the dirt they find there.  Acid heads.  Each white french kid was accompanied by their very own African caretaker.  Totally bizarre, but I guess it's like that in the states too.  Everyone looked like they were having fun anyways.  The gazebo seemed to be the place to be.  When the toblerone came out, the kids came over with their best pouty faces.  Couldn't give them any without their parents consent though!  Lovely day.  I hope the kids I teach will be as cute as these ones.

The rooftops of Paris

Coolest place I've been.  Imagine one of Danny's friends shimmying up a drain pipe to hop the fence of his former high school.  A second later, he opens the gate for us grinning.  Woo!  We're in!  Next, it's up the elevator and through some questionable fences onto the roof.  The 'fence' was made to make it difficult to make it through without falling to your death, but possible enough to encourage people to try.  However, luckily we all managed and once up there you realize what a fantastic choice you made to not turn back.  The view up there is incredible!  I felt like I was in Mary Poppins.  We could see everything:  Sacré Coeur, la Tour Eiffel.  C'etait trop cool.  We just sat up there for awhile, the 4 frenchies, me and Danny, speaking french and smoking cigarettes....Oh, the French.
And to think I almost missed out because I was 'too tired'.

Cleary the photo doesn't do it justice, but I thought I'd try.

Coolio