La visite medicale et toujours la greve!

So I wanted to explain the strike a bit better, I got a 'Appel a la Greve' in my mailbox this morning at Louis Issaurat (among other things I got in the mailbox...urgh) and it explains all the details about why everyone's striking. Basically, Sarkozy's trying to impose a law that seems mostly to affect people who work for a salary. He's trying to make them work for longer (usually they work 37.5 years, he's trying to extend it to 40), and he's also reducing their pensions depending on when they retire - it's worse if you retire at 60 than at 65, but even those who retire at 65 will have their pensions reduced, according to this new law. He's also trying to reduce military pensions. Evidently he's also trying to reduce the number of people on salary by 22,000 by 2008, which includes 11,200 people in education - and making up for it by having teachers work in more than one school, etc. The strike is also against the privatisation of Social Security, which is what Sarko's all about (and for students, it's against the privatisation of universities - he's trying to make at least some schools private). There's also an addition on this sheet that I got from the school that it's against his immigration policies and the deportation of individuals who don't have their papers. So it seems like a broad range of complaints against Sarkozy, but it has really been a large-scale strike, and people don't really seem to want to back down.

Yesterday, I waited for a metro to Creteil for 45 minutes before I gave up. Line 8 (which is the one I take to Creteil) seems to be having a lot of problems - I think it's the ones that extend furthest into the banlieue which are the most affected. Anyway, I didn't want to get stuck out there and miss my class. So I stayed home and got some work done, and then I walked to Censier for class - it turns out that the walk is nice and probably about as long as the bus ride! As for today, I really had to make it to Creteil, and the metro was really, really packed. It's usually busy, but this time it was unbelievable. I waited about 25 minutes this morning before a train came, and then I got to Louis Issaurat and found out that my medical visit for my carte de sejour was...this afternoon! In Montrouge! (They received the fax on Tuesday, and I just got it this morning!) I wouldn't have been so stressed out about it except for the strike! I went to one class, the 6e, who chose their American names, they were so excited about it, and then I left! I waited about 20 minutes for the metro this time, and it was really kind of scary because it was so full, I thought I wasn't going to be able to get out! Luckily I did, I got home, grabbed my passport and every document about anything ever, and then had to head to Montrouge.

If you're looking at a map of Paris, Montrouge is basically south central suburb, right outside of the city (literally, you cross the peripherique and you're in Montrouge), but I didn't want to take the 13 line, which is closer to there, because I didn't want to have to change trains, so I walked to St Michel to take the 4 line to Porte d'Orleans, which is still in Paris but on the way to Montrouge, and man, it was a loooooong walk. It was much longer than I thought it would be. Luckily I got a train right away, and I made it to Montrouge without getting lost, though I walked about 2 miles before I found the ANAEM (the place for the medical visits). And of course, the visit took about 30 minutes, I got special treatment for being a TA...it was kind of weird to have a medical visit in French. I had to read alphabet eye charts, and I was so scared she was going to think I couldn't see because I mixed up letter sounds! And I had to get a chest x-ray (they let me keep it!!!!) and then I had to do my blood pressure - respirez, soufflez (breathe in, breathe out), and I had to talk about vaccinations...she asked me if I had had my vaccinations, I didn't know which ones she was talking about but I'm assuming I had them all before I came to school. Either way, I got some stuff stamped, got authorized to work, and was out around 2. I took a bus back to the metro, and I got back to Paris fine, I stopped by ILPGA to see about the Finnish class (Verena had texted me earlier to say that it was cancelled, but then she wasn't sure), and I talked to some dudes from my class and they said that it was cancelled and also told me where to find the bus. They were nice, I was excited. Anyway then I came back, went to ACCENT to copy EVERYTHING so that I can go to the prefecture on Monday (though I don't have a real attestation d'hebergement so they might not accept me yet) and then I got some Photomaton pictures done (they are so bad, of course), and now I'm ready to go to the prefecture...hopefully things go fine!!!

Sasha came over for dinner - Elly, Hannah, and Cecile were also supposed to come but they couldn't get transportation and didn't want to get stuck, so they didn't, which is fine cause I'll see them tomorrow anyway. I had a really nice time with Sasha, she updated me on everything, and things seem to be going well for her. I went to the Marche at Aligre earlier today and got some veggies, so I made a nice salad with some good dressing...I even broke down and bought some buffalo mozarella from this Italian dude who's at the market, so I put it on my salad, basalmic vinaigrette dressing with garlic, it was really awesome. Now I have a massive amount of really good lettuce in my fridge, I hope I can eat it all before it goes bad!

So anyway, that's my life from the past two days, I am looking forward to a little vacation tomorrow to Mont Saint Michel. I'l definitely be posting about that, probably Sunday, so keep your eyes out, and until then...la greve continue!!!