The End of my Year Abroad May 27, 2009

OK so it’s been nearly a week since I got back from France so I thought it was about time I wrote that roundup post I promised. At the time I was too busy in sightseeing mode with Mum and Alan and to be honest the reality of leaving for the last time hadn’t sunk in; I just didn’t know what to write. In our last few days there we had dinner at La Capitainerie, The Salmon House and Quai West, had tea at Jardin des Delices, visited Amiens cathedral and Jules Verne’s house, and Rouen. In Rouen we had a look round its cathedral also, comparing it to Amiens’. They are both built in the same gothic style as Paris’ Notre Dame, but whilst Amiens cathedral has ornate chapels, a bright interior and highly decorative tiled floor, Rouen’s in darker, shabbier and in much worse condition. It suffered greatly from bombing during both wars and restoration work has only recently got underway. In contrast, Rouen’s astronomical clock is a shining glory, and the museum is fascinating. You can see the pictures I took in Rouen here: Rouen.

A typical street in Rouen

The Gros Horloge astronomical clock

Rouen cathedral seen from the clock tower

So, how should I sum up my year abroad? The truth is, I don’t think I can. It was too much of a rollercoaster of different emotions and experiences to be summed up with one conclusion. In some ways I hated it; the first semester was so difficult in terms of settling in and getting my head around the way the system worked, the weather didn’t help, and then of course the second semester was frustrating in many ways because of the strike. I don’t think I truly felt settled or confidently understood the way things worked until about January. On the other hand, I had some great experiences, especially on my travels to Barcelona and Brussels. It was great being so close to Paris as well, and if it hadn’t been for the strike I wouldn’t have had so much time to do other things and make the most of it this second semester. This time in France has put me off wanting to live in the country in the future – things may not be rosy in the UK but neither are they in France; the issues might be different but the outcome is the same. However, the time abroad has brought me a greater appreciation of European culture so I would definitely still consider life in continental Europe rather than staying in the UK. In terms of language, I don’t feel my French has improved that much. I picked up some more specific vocabulary but I didn’t do enough difficult writing to improve that. My listening skills have improved a bit I think, but I have to say that day-to-day life conversations aren’t usually enough to improve degree-level French.

So there you have it; a truly mixed bag of conclusions from a year abroad in France. I look forward to travelling more after graduation and in the more distant future, especially in Europe. If (when) I spend some more prolonged periods of time in foreign countries I may resurrect this blog under a modified title to continue posting about life abroad. Until then, adieu and feel free to watch my Life in Cornwall blog, which no doubt will see some action over the next few months!

Les Hortillonnages and la Nuit des Musées May 17, 2009

Yesterday was quite a random day in all; in the morning I went for my last supermarket shop to get my dinner for tonight, and in the afternoon I went into town to take some pictures of favourite places like Jardin des Délices and Retroviseur, to buy some more macarons and to meet Sonia and friends for a walk around the Hortillonnages. The Hortillonnages are an area of 300 hectares of wetland, very close to the centre of town, that have been inhabited and cultivated for 2000 years. Today only a few farmers remain and only about 25 hectares are cultivated; the rest has become a sort of park or fishing lakes. There are paths through parts of it, but to see all of it the best way is to take the punt barge from Quai Bélu and be poled through the narrow channels, between the islands of land. Some islands are just wildlife habitat, others are farmed, and others still have sheds or houses on them. Each house has it’s own bridge and some have even built steeply curved driveways over the channels. Each seems to have their own little boat as well.

Shed on one of the Hortillonnage islands

After we’d walked round a small part of the Hortillonnages (we seemed to have picked a path that didn’t go very far before we got cut off by water), we headed back towards town and the Parc St. Pierre, the big park that everyone chills and picnics in. There are also allotments along one side of it, which are all full of produce. Keeping allotments seems to be quite popular here; passing through Longeau on the train to Amiens you see lots of them and I’ve glimpsed a few in a green space between some house on the bus a few times; basically wherever they can be squeezed in, they go. We wandered through town a bit, got some crepes from a street stall, and sat in Place Gambetta until it started to rain, whereupon we dived into Mezzo di Pasta for a couple of hours, taking our time over some drinks and pasta.

At about 8pm we went to meet some others outside Maison de la Culture to start our Nuit des Musées tour. La Nuit des Musées is an annual European event where museums put on special tours or open their doors out of hours, and it’s free. It’s a sort of publicity event to try and encourage people to come to the museums who might not normally come. Two places in Amiens were taking part; la Musée de Picardie and Jules Verne’s house. Unfortunately, the Musée de Picardie is actually closed all this year because they are doing some major repair and improvement works; replacing the roof and putting in a new lift among other things. However, as was explained to us, they still wanted to be a part of la Nuit so they had invited a group of artists to put in a light installation in their courtyard gardens. To be honest it wasn’t all that impressive; partly because it wasn’t actually finished so there was no atmosphere, and partly because it hadn’t gone totally dark so the lights weren’t so bright. I still took a few photos though.

The second part of the tour was to Jules Verne’s house, but that didn’t open until 10pm so we wandered in that direction and stopped in a bar by the Cirque just down the road from it to wait. They had Eurovision on the big screen, so that was a laugh. I didn’t see the UK’s performance but it was fun trying to explain the concept of Eurovision to the Americans! We got to Jules Verne’s house just after 10 and there were so many people there! The house is not that big and the tower part has a limit of 12 people at once, so they only let 20 or so people into the house at once. This meant that we were standing in line to get in for an hour, which we weren’t too impressed with. The line was just as long behind us, and their last admission was going to be at 12.30, so they also asked us not to take our time looking round the house, which I thought was a bit cheeky. Unfortunately, all video and photos are banned inside the house which I was very disappointed about, especially since there were some wonderful old posters! There was a room devoted to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which had portholes and all sorts of marine memorabilia, and one devoted to Around the World in 80 Days. I particularly liked that room because the floor was a big map with the around the world route marked on it, and the writing desk has the globe on which Jules Verne drew the journeys of his characters. Up in the tower there were stacks of huge old books, but there was nothing to tell us what they are. The house is certainly full of some very old, valuable and totally irreplaceable artifacts. I took some photos in the courtyard outside; the tower of the house has a giant blue globe on the top of it and one wall of the courtyard is covered in a mural depicting features of Jules Verne’s stories.

Jules Verne's house with globe tower

Wall Mural

You can see all the photos I took yesterday here: Album 3.

A Day in (and under) Paris May 14, 2009

I did head for Paris yesterday in the end, and gambled with the weather. As it turned out, it didn’t rain at all and was even quite warm with a peek of sunshine. Certainly enough for people to be out lounging and picnicking in droves in the Jardins de Luxembourg. I didn’t get everything on my list done, but I did see the things I most wanted to see. I ran out of time as I wanted to get the train back before 5pm in order not to have to pay extra on my train fare, but my feet were aching so much by that point I don’t think I could have faced walking round all the other things on my list! I can always do those another time; I doubt very much it’ll be the last time I go to Paris.

To begin with I headed the furthest south in the city I’ve ever been, to Place Denfert-Rochereau and the Catacombs. Although macabre and a little claustrophobic this was something I really wanted to experience. I had it down on my list to do on my first “grown-up” trip to Paris two years ago, but never got round to it.

Walls of bones in the ossuary

The Catacombs de Paris are an underground network of tunnels leading to an ossuary containing the remains of around 6 million people. They were created in the 18th century as a solution to the problem of disease caused by Paris’ many overcrowded city cemetaries, in particular the Cimetiere des Innocents which was in close proximity to the sprawling and busy food market of les Halles. The transferral of remain from les Innocents began on 7th April 1786 and continued for two years, with the remains being carried in carts accompanied by a religious procession under cover of darkness. Remains from all the cemetaries of Paris were deposited in the Catacombs until 1814. It became somewhat of a curiosity, with many noble men and ladies paying visits to the Catacombs. They were eventually opened to the public for a couple of days each week, and are now open every day except Mondays. The section of catacombs which are open now is 2km long, but in reality most of Paris is hollow underground! The carrieres are the former quarry galleries, of which some are open to the public, and then of course there are the vast sewer network which follows the street layout, and the 14 metro and 4 RER lines! All this tunnel-work under the city means that there is a whole department whose job it is to keep track of all the tunnels, maintain their strength and monitor all new building work to ensure no collapses occur.

As well as the Catacombs I had a small list of curious places in Paris that I wanted to see; such as the oldest tree, planted in 1601; the oldest house, built in 1407, and a wall with a cannonball from the revolution of 1830 still embedded in it. I had lunch in a lovely café called Berko on Rue Rambuteau, which consisted of a salmon and spinach quiche, salade du jour and a small sweet tart for €9.50. It looked like this;

Lunch

Pudding

Unfortunately the two cake shops on Rue Rambuteau I wanted to visit; Pain du Sucre and Pralus, were both closed, so I continued on my wandering tour of curious places to an Astrological Tower near the Louvre entrance to les Halles, an ornate entrance to the Palais Royal metro station and a WWI mobilisation poster still on a wall of a building near Place Concorde. By that point my time had run out, so I didn’t get to see the Chinese house, art nouveau building, or the house designed by the same architect who did the curly-wurly metro signs I like, but never mind they can wait for another day!
As always, full sets of photos can be found here: Album 1, Album 2 Album 1 also contains photos from trips in 2007 and 2008; yesterday’s pictures start with the Catacombs on page 2.

I didn’t get back too late in the evening so I went out with Sonia and some other Erasmus/ISEP students to Retroviseur to enjoy the usual Wednesday night Jazz. They were actually selling a CD of their music for 5 euros, which I considered a good investment. I didn’t take any more film as I was too involved in conversation but as I plan to take mum and Alan there next week I might take some then.

I will leave you with a couple more photos from Paris.

Jardins de Luxembourg

A hazy Eiffel tower overlooking Place de Concorde

Brussels : City of a Thousand Languages April 12, 2009

The Mannekin-Pis, an icon of Brussels

Sonia and I were granted our wish for great weather this weekend; after leaving Amiens in a dull and unpromising grey morning, we arrived in Brussels just before midday to wonderful sunshine and a warm city. It took us a while to find our hotel because the map I had printed from google was wrong. Fortunately Sonia had also written down directions and hers were different, so we tried those and found it! For the price (€30 each for a twin room, 1 night) the hotel St. Anne was amazing; it seemed to be brand new, everything gleaming in a white, minimalist and modern-art style. Breakfast was a generous buffet, included in the price and featuring bacon and eggs as well as the usual continental fare! It was just a short walk from a raft of restaurants, bars, shops and the main old centre of town, so ideally placed for us.

After we had checked in and relaxed for 5 minutes, we headed out to start exploring, deciding to go to the furthest point out and work our way back. So with street map in hand we navigated uphill through the Sablon/Marolles area, to the Palais de Justice and viewing point at Place Poleart for views over the city. On the way back down we wandered through the narrow streets of the old quarter, peering at the old antique shops, and the amazing number of fancy window displays in the chocolate shops, until we reached the bottom and the teeming corner where the Mannekin-Pis stands. This tiny statue/fountain stands barely a foot tall and is constantly surrounded by a melee of tourists having their picture taken with it! Just a short walk into the centre of this area brings you to the Grand Place, surrounded by the magnificent buildings of the Town Hall, King’s House and ornate Guild Houses.

Something we did as we were walking round the town was try to find various comic-strip murals that have been put up as part of the 2009 celebrations of the comic strip. I bought a guidebook including map from the Comic Strip House and in the end we managed to see about half of the murals. Some were too far out of our way to walk to, but most are clustered in the centre of town so it was those that we saw. In keeping our eyes out for them we also came across many other pieces of street art or sculpture, all unusual or of much higher quality than your average graffiti! My favourites out of these were some graffiti sketches of pigs, which now adorn my computer desktop! To round off the afternoon, we decided to go back up the hill to wander through the large Parc de Bruxelles, between the old Palais Royal and the Parliament building; but since our feet were aching we got the metro this time! It was lovely in the early evening sunshine, and the park was full of families and couples who had obviously been enjoying some of the first nice weather of the year.

We chilled at the hotel for an hour or so until it was about time for dinner, and in the process of searching for a good looking place we experienced the multiculturality of Brussels come to life! Anyone who has been in the narrow streets of the St. Germain area of Paris in the evening would recognise the scene; tiny cobbled streets lined with restaurants on both sides, all with tables and menus outside until there is barely room to walk between them, and all with maitre d’s touting for your business, trying to persuade you that theirs is the finest menu or the cheapest price. And also as you find in Paris, the different world cuisines tend to gravitate towards each other; so you have little Italy, Greek street and Chinatown, the German style, French style and the list goes on. In the event, Sonia and I battled our way through all of these to emerge in Place Agora Plein; a blissfully quiet oasis after the noisy, crowded streets we’d just escaped. We picked a small, simple place who didn’t hassle us and had an equally non-fussy dinner of steak-frites. Sonia got her long-awaited bottle of Kriek cherry beer, which I tried and liked, and I chose another beer which turned out to be a success; Lindemann’s Framboise (raspberry) beer. After dinner we went to find Delirium Café, a famous bar which has over 2000 beers on offer. The bar itself was incredible, never mind the beers they serve; it was covered in beer signs, trays, mats, mugs, bottles; all stuck to the ceiling and walls or indeed cemented into them. It was packed and playing lively rock music; the pictures don’t do it justice and in retrospect I should have taken some film! We only stayed just long enough for another beer and to take in the atmosphere, since we didn’t want to be up too late with a full day to take in more of the city in the morning.

We did manage to get up early, had a good breakfast and then checked out, leaving our bags to collect later. First on the agenda was to head back up to Sablon to explore the market that happens on weekends. I had hoped there would be a good book market there but as it was the stalls were mostly brick-a-brack, pictures, jewellery and antiques. Never mind, I still came away with 5 early-1900’s postcards and two pieces of jewellery, so I considered it a success even if there were no books to be had! Again we wandered back down to Grand Place through the myriad streets, admiring the architecture to be found on every corner. And then a treat; the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate! No sooner have you bought your ticket and they give you a tasting; this is my kind of museum! There were displays of everything from the horticulture of the cocoa plant, to processing, manufacture, historical methods, medicinal traditions, chemical properties and even chocolate fashion! There was also a small kitchen where a very friendly lady showed us how individual chocolates are made; from the solid 5kg block of chocolate that is melted, how to know when it is the right consistency; filling the moulds and allowing the excess to run out to leave the shells, and finally once it’s solidified, how to make it into a praline. And yes, we got more tastings! After this it was about time for lunch, but we only grabbed a quick light salad because both Sonia and I were craving chocolate, and more specifically the traditional and famous Belgian waffle! We bought our chocolates for later, but the waffles were for now; I opted for strawberry and chantilly cream whereas Sonia added chocolate sauce too. For the rest of the afternoon we browsed the shops and found some more comic strip murals, but all too soon it was time to fetch our bags from the hotel and metro back to Gare du Midi to catch our TGV back to Lille.

It is a strange experience crossing a border by train; no one checked our passports and it didn’t really feel like we had gone to another country! Part of this I’m sure is to do with the fact that Belgium is also largely French speaking, although of course Dutch and German are equally used. Another factor is that even in Lille, just within the French border and an international hub with trains running between Belgium, France and the UK, the three languages begin to appear on signs, so already the cultures are being mixed and you begin to feel like you’re in an international place rather than one particular country. I titled this post “Brussels: City of thousand languages” because I swear I heard every language known to man and more besides in two days there. Apart from the three “biggies”; French, English and Dutch, there were also German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Greek, Chinese and many other Arabic and Asian languages I couldn’t begin to identify. Evidence of cultural migration was everywhere; in shops, restaurants, services and just in the people walking down the street. It really is a completely international city, and somewhere I would definitely consider spending some time in if ever I needed to improve a particular language. I would say French and English were the two languages I heard most; and even though I spoke to people in French I was often answered in English, at least after a couple of sentences. This irritated me a bit because I don’t think I sound obviously English when I’m speaking French now; indeed I was always either asked “do you speak English?” or the person in question had heard me speaking English to Sonia before the language was switched. I can understand that, just as I try to always improve my French, the people I was speaking to may have been trying to improve their English, but I can’t help feeling that it was the “default-to-English” syndrome again and assumption about my level of French. One incident has stuck in my mind and that was when I was buying my waffle; there were no prices listed so when I got mine I had to wait until the vendor told me how much, which she did whilst turning away into the kitchen so I only caught 4… and not what came after. So I got four euros out and gave that to her, so she repeated how much more was needed. I heard “five”, in English (she’d heard me speaking to Sonia), so I gave her 5 cents, she shook her head and repeated herself; this time I heard what sounded like “five teen”, very badly pronounced, so I queried her; “fifteen? quinze?” in English then French, and she shook her head again, finally giving up on English and told me “cinquante”; fifty. At last! If she had just stuck to French, we would have understood each other perfectly and she could have moved on to the next customer already. The default to English syndrome really annoys me sometimes, especially in cases like this. I realise that for people who can’t speak French (or any other language) well, it is necessary, and I’m sure that I will need it in Dresden later this year; since I don’t speak a word of German. But when you have started speaking to someone in perfectly good French (or any other language) and it’s just a simple transaction why on earth must you switch to English!!

Anyway here are the photo albums: Brussels 1, Brussels 2, Comic strips, statues & other street art

Another AG and Stars sur Glace April 9, 2009

This week has tumbled by fairly quickly it seems, which doesn’t surprise me because there’s been a fair amount to fill it. Today I went to pick up some of my marked literature work from a lecturer who’d organised a rendez-vous at a café in town, and we sat with some of the other students and chatted about the strike and the experience of studying abroad for a while before I left to go to today’s AG back at campus. The results were predictable, and nothing unusual happened. Here’s the summary:

1) Motion to invite Georges Fauré to the next AG to debate the electronic vote: 40 abstentions, 4 against, passed by visible majority.

2) Motion to increase the number of principles/reforms the movement is against (I didn’t entirely catch the details of this motion but it matters little because…): 108 abstentions, 142 against, 25 for, therefore motion refused.

3) Motion to continue the strike: 16 abstentions, 4 against, passed by visible majority.

4) Motion to continue occupation: 35 abstentions, 53 against, passed by visible majority.

5) Motion to continue blocages until next vote Tuesday 14th: 30 abstentions, 141 against, 272 for.

So, there we have it; the movement continues in all its glory for another few days, and the next AG on Tuesday will likely determine the fate of the final days before the Easter break. I am still waiting to hear from Keele but I am definitely moving towards leaving end of this month.

Last night I went to Stars sur Glace; a showcase from members of the French ice skating team that has been touring the country over the last few months; last night it came to Amiens. The headliner was due to be Brian Joubert, a world champion, but unfortunately he sustained an injury over the last week and has decided to cancel his performances in the hopes of recovering in time for the championships he’s due to compete at soon. It was a disappointment not to see him but injury is a hazard of course with a sport like skating, and competing is his priority! As compensation they told us our tickets are valid for any one of next year’s shows, anywhere in France, so I’ll have to keep an eye out to see if I can get to one.  As is tradition with the show, it was kicked off by the local skating club who had three solo performers currently competing at national level; two young girls and a teenage boy who were all excellent – and then the rest of the club came on for a group number. I filmed most of the professional performances and I’ve organised them into video compilations for youtube. Make sure you select the high quality version by clicking the HQ button so it goes red – the standard youtube version really doesn’t do this justice! Oh, and the rink is the same one I’ve been skating on each week.

Tomorrow I’m off to Brussels so I’ll be back with an update on Sunday or Monday!

Jazz and skating April 3, 2009

As promised there is a jazz video in tonight’s installment! I went out with Sonia and an assortment of her friends on Wednesday night; to begin with I got the bus over to Sonia’s accommodation at Castillon – it was further out of town than I thought! We sat around drinking and chatting for a bit and then walked into town to St. Leu. One of the bad things about living in Castillon is that there is no evening bus service and the streets are small, quiet, residential with bad street lighting – not good for walking alone! It’s surprising (or perhaps not, we are in France after all) that the route between town and a major uni accommodation area would be so badly serviced. Anyway jazz at Retroviseur was great, we got there a bit after 10 and left at midnight; me and one of Sonia’s friends were both going to get the last bus back to campus so we walked Sonia most of the way to Castillon and then came back to St. Leu for the bus. Here is the compilation I made of the music:

Yesterday I managed to sleep half the day away and in the afternoon did laundry; nothing more exciting than that! Today I got up a bit earlier and went skating this afternoon with Sonia. It was good, didn’t really work on much but it was a quiet session and above all it was nice to have someone to chat to. After skating we walked into town and stopped by Alice Delice, a fancy cookware shop that sells posh pasta, coffee, chocolate etc as well as cooking utensils. Most days at 4.30 they have a short cooking demonstration in the mini-kitchen downstairs; today it was making banana muffins with blue and yellow lemon icing. It was fun to watch and we got a little taster of the muffins at the end!

I’ve had a couple of emails today from the International Office. The first was asking what courses I had been taking this semester because they apparently didn’t know, and had any of them been affected by the strike. I replied telling them they did have a list which I gave them to send to Keele for me at the beginning of the semester, and that all of my courses had been affected to some extent by the strike, but I could come and explain everything to them on Monday. Then a bit later on someone else in the office sent out a general email to everyone asking for lists of our courses that have been affected by the strike. This struck me as a bit late in the game; it’s like they’ve only just accepted or realised that this has affected us and will impact on exams! Anyway I will fill out this list and go explain it to them on Monday, and hopefully might get some concrete answers at last! Even if they have nothing to say I am still emailing Keele on Monday to outline what has happened, what I have to show for this semester and what I intend to do.

I think you know the drill… April 1, 2009

Yes so this morning brought another AG and I think you know the drill by now. I took my camera but didn’t bother filming since there were nowhere near as many people as on Monday. It was rather more subdued; the debate didn’t go on that long and this time mainly revolved around the possibility of an electronic vote that the presidence is pushing for. The main objections to this are issues of verification, democracy and the fact that the current set up of open debate followed by the vote would be unavailable. However, an electronic vote would potentially open up the vote to everyone, not just those who can make it to the AG. Although as one debater pointed out, if they really care enough about the mobilisation to vote meaningfully they will come to the AG. The motions voted on today were as follows:

1) Motion to boycott any electronic vote:  passed by visible majority

2) Motion to put in place anonymous or secret voting: blocked by visible majority.

3) Motion to send a delegation to a) the CNU (Conseil Nationale des Universités) b) the CNE (Conseil Nationale des Etudiants),  c) both, d) neither: visible majority voted for c) both – but it seemed there were problems getting volunteers to make up the delegation!

4) Continuation of the strike: passed by visible majority

5) Continuation of occupation: passed by visible majority

6) Continuation of the blocage until the next AG Monday 6th: passed by counted majority; 29 abstentions, 170 against, 277 for.

There was also a summary following the seige of la presidence on Monday; I didn’t realise this but for a while there have been “guards” on the door of the presidence building. Other administrative people are in there, such as the International Office who I went to see the other week; and I was asked by a man on the door who I was going to see and then escorted to the office, but since they were doing refurbishing works in the main hall I assumed it was to prevent me straying into that and had no idea it was connected with “protecting” the president from unwanted callers. Anyway, this article from Le Courrier Picard sums it up pretty well; Le president sommé de s’expliquer but since it’s in French I’ll recap.

Georges Fauré speaking to students, image from Courrier Picard

A couple of hundred students went up to the presidence after Monday’s AG to demand that the president Georges Fauré finally explains clearly his position with regard to the strike. They had to wait an hour and a half before he made an appearance and agreed to speak with them. One of the members of the mobilisation committee is quoted as saying “he’s been fleeing us for weeks; in the press he claims to support the movement but in reality he’s trying to undermine it.” Fauré’s main objection to the blocages seems to be that it is the biggest threat to the validation of everyone’s degree – how can you award a degree when it is supposed to be for 6 semesters and you’ve only done 5? One student spoke out and said that he was willing to sacrifice his semester and therefore the year in order to preserve the university for future generations; this was greeted with enormous applause. Fauré didn’t really seem to give a definitive stance one way or the other; obviously he doesn’t want to see his university “marred” by setting all the students back a semester as a result of this strike, however he does not declare himself in support of the reforms and therefore one might conclude he is against them and supports some form of resistance. He said that it was not his place as president to declare himself on strike. And he still seems unable to accept that this is a steam-train of a movement that shows no signs of slowing down; this week he sent an email about the assessments merely asking that classes be resumed from this week. Well, that just isn’t going to happen, so I think it would be better if he took his head out of the sand and made an executive decision, such as putting the exams back until September. That way, those students who are currently in crisis, unsure whether to support the movement and risk their semester or support their degree and go against the movement would perhaps regain a clearer sense of direction, and the movement would be the stronger for it.

I really didn’t intend to write just about the strike for yet another post, but to be honest not much else is going on and it takes up so much space! I had a really great skating session yesterday, tonight I’m going for drinks and jazz at Retroviseur with Sonia et al (expect another video), tomorrow I might go down to Paris for the demonstrations but more likely to leave that til next week. Apart from that just chilling and enjoying the sunshine!

Blocages set to continue March 23, 2009

As expected, I had no lectures Thursday and Friday last week due to the faculties being barricaded. This continued today. No barricades were taken down at all, and the doors were only opened to allow people in to attend the AG at 12pm in the biggest lecture theatre. This is in a circular corridor called the rotonde (rotunda), which connect to the faculty buildings D and E on one side and A,B and C on the other. The protestors had also erected barricades of tables and chairs to either side of the lecture theatre doors in order to stop anyone wandering off into the other buildings. There were footprints on the floor leading to the theatre and it generally felt like we were being herded in! This lecture theatre is huge, I didn’t take my camera but I wish I had because it is really difficult to describe just how many people there were. Hundreds, at least; on every bench, seat, wall, step and spilling out into the entrance passages and corridors outside. This movement has a far larger support than I had realised.

The meeting took two hours in the end; to begin with there were summaries from the leaders of the movement with regard to what has already happened during the movement, the result of recent demonstrations including numbers – apparently there were 3 million protestors across the country on Thursday in relation to this strike – plans for upcoming demonstrations, summaries from the other faculties, and meetings with the university president. Then the floor was opened for debate, with quite a few people stepping up to voice their opinions, although by the end it had become a rotation of the same few people. The vast majority made passionate speeches about how it was necessary to continue strike action no matter what; how the government must listen and that this is the only way to get the reforms thrown out. They left the floor to an uproar of applause and stamping of feet. The one or two who dared to take the stand against the strike movement barely got their sentences out before being booed and shouted down.

There were a few notable moments; one of the issues hotly debated today was that of the “semestre blanc” or void semester; essentially if the strike continues, it will be very difficult if not impossible to set any kind of meaningful assessment, and therefore validate the semester. For me this isn’t a great issue but for the permanent students it means making up that semester at some point in their degree. This week, following the blocages where no lectures at all have taken place, the presidence has voiced concerns about this resulting in a semestre blanc – and has been ridiculed by the strikers for this, because as they rightly point out many courses have been on strike, with no classes, for nearly 2 months now – which has a greater impact on the likelihood of a semestre blanc than 3 days blocage, and yet the presidence has only just started making noises. There seemed to be a conflict of information at the meeting today though; whereas one lecturer stood up and said that, legally because of the duration of the strike so far we are already categorically in a semestre blanc situation, another stood up and said that the students should not be worried because no matter what they would be awarded a grade and the semester would be validated. Personally I don’t see how this is possible. At one point a debating student turned to face the largest group of lecturers and accused them of urging the students to radicalise the strike movement (i.e blocages) in one moment and then cautioning them of the risk of a semestre blanc in the next. So there are slight cracks in the foundation of this strike, but they are very minor.

Finally after the debate came the voting. I abstained because obviously it’s unfair for me to vote on things that seriously affect the other students but not me; I was only there today as an information-gathering exercise. It was difficult to hear but the voting was split into three parts; the first vote was on whether to change the list of people who are allowed past the barricades. Last week it was something like lecturers, university personnel, library staff, master’s students, people supporting master’s theses, and the IUT staff. I’m not quite sure who the IUT people are, but anyway today they were voted off the list in order to force them to show solidarity with the strike movement, which they have up until now resisted. The second vote was on the general continuation of the strike, which was of course passed. And the third vote was on whether to continue the blocages, in this case until Thursday and the next AG. This was also passed, by an overwhelming majority and again to massive cheering and applause as it became clear. So barring any sudden changes, come Thursday I will have had no lectures for an entire week. I have already missed one mid-term and I will now miss another on Wednesday; as for the future it remains to be seen but I suspect the blocages will continue. I will go to the AG again on Thursday; it’s become more important now that I get a proper grasp on what’s happening, especially as I now won’t find out anything from classmates or lecturers because we won’t see each other. Next time I’ll take a camera and you’ll get an idea of this strike’s following.

Blocages! Another twist in the strike saga… March 19, 2009

Fac. Lettres doors blocked

Yesterday brought another turn of events in the history of this year’s strike. Now that we are roughly 2 months into the strike, it seems the consensus is that this is a critical breaking point. Last year’s strike cracked at about this time and they lost the battle. This year’s picked up almost where they left off, and they are more determined than ever to see it through to the bitter end. With half the university not observing the strike up until now and many rumours spreading of an end in sight, it was decided at yesterday’s AG that more drastic action was needed to show everyone that this fight is not over. So they voted for “blocages” until Monday and the next AG. This means picket lines and other forms of physical obstruction of faculty buildings, thus forcing those who had previously conducted classes normally to acknowledge the strike. The picture above shows the doors to the Faculté de Lettres section piled high with tables and chairs. All the other doors were the same, with the exception of the rotonde which was only partially blocked and manned by strikers who only allowed lecturers and maintenance staff through.

Faculties blocked until Monday 23rd. It is time that they understood that democracy is us!

I went down to both my lectures today just to see what it was like but it was clear no one had any classes today, unless as I heard one irate lecturer say, they were conducted outside – that is if she could round up enough of her students. I think most people, having heard about it yesterday, didn’t even bother showing up. Tomorrow however, we have a mid-term exam in Spanish translation. Or at least, that was the plan. Now it seems likely that will have to be rescheduled. On Monday at the next AG (which I intend to go to this time) I presume they will vote again not only on whether to continue the strike but whether to continue the blocages. I can see a situation whereby they vote for blocages to affect one to three days each week; continuous would be too drastic a measure even for them but with partial blocages they could cause almost as much disruption. I have set an end-date on my space to watch; four weeks. That’s the length of time between now and when I fly home for Easter. I’ve decided that if the situation has a) not improved from current or b) got even worse, there is little point me coming back and paying more rent for May to sit around waiting for more-than-likely nonexistent assessments. We shall have to wait and see.

Rough interpretation: If you want to go to lectures, help us win this fight quickly

I am not bothered, in fact I’ll be quite pleased if that turns out to be the case. I believe that they are justified in fighting these reforms and that strike action is the only way they can get the government to take notice. I also believe that this is the time to step up actions and something like this was needed. This strike has a massive following; as the flyer they handed out today reads: it is the lecturers, university general staff, research laboratories, doctorates, IUT, IUFM and the teacher’s federation that are all supporting this strike action.

A tangle of tables and chairs effectively blocks the doors

As the flyer also says; “much better than last year when we were isolated.” Another passage rallies against letting the movement become slack: “In the face of this ambiant demoralisation that reigns over Amiens, where the impression is that the fight is useless, let us remember that this isn’t the case in France, contrary to what the media would like us to believe. It is time to find once more the strength that was ours last year!” It also states the figures from the CNU (Coordination Nationale des Universités) from the 16th March; 53 universities represented, of which 40 are blocked and 8 occupied.

A roundup of the Strike so far… March 10, 2009

I thought I would just write a post about the strike tonight, because I know it has been confusing for us over here so it may well have been hard to follow for anyone not experiencing it as well. On Monday February 2nd, university lecturers walked out and began a general, unlimited strike to protest against the government’s proposed reforms to the higher education system; notably to funding, the position of enseignant-chercheur (teacher-researcher), masterisation/ alteration of courses and the cutting of hundreds of jobs – all of these reforms were to be introduced at the beginning of next academic year in September 2009.

Although some progress has been made the outcome remains unclear. After a couple of weeks when it became clear this was no small strike, the education minister Valérie Pécresse appointed a mediator and began talks with the unions to revise the reforms, but she still insisted that reforms of some kind would go ahead in September. Later it was promised that after 2009’s cuts, no further job cuts would come in 2010 or 2011. Still the strike goes on, because the unions are not happy until the entire bill is thrown out and in particular the government still hasn’t given ground on one or two points of the bill. A recent article from the local press, Le Courrier Picard, included a quote that from past experience of strikes in the education sector, the point of no return for catching up is 5 or 6 weeks. This is week 6 of the strike so far.

At UPJV, views on the strike are divided. There are those lecturers who never went on strike, whose classes have been largely unaffected up until now (unless they happened to fall on a day of general demonstrations or on “dead university day” last Thursday), and who are now trying to set dates for mid-term asssessments and being told by the President of the university that he will not allow any formal assessments to be set until the strike is resolved. The Presidence then is clearly backing the strike, and in particular the Faculté de Lettres is still very actively and almost completely on strike – but others, such as languages and science, are less active and have seen almost no disruption at all. Law was on a total strike to begin with but now apparently they are starting to return to teaching. So while some see the strike as over, others are as vehement as ever that the fight is only just beginning and that the movement must remain strong to have the best effect and not a repeat of last year’s defeat. This coming Thursday there is another national demonstration day and this time the unions have called for the lycées to join them; after all it is this year’s lycée graduates who will be affected by next year’s reforms as much as the staff and current university students.

If the strike ends in the next couple of weeks it will create the most awkward situation for the rest of the semester, I think. This is because there will be just enough time to rush and cram in as much as possible of the missed course material to form a condensed course and take an exam in May, but it will be very pressured and difficult to follow because so much of the peripheral material will have to be left out. If the strike continues for another 3-4 weeks, then it seems likely that the course will still be rushed to catch up and condensed down, but the exams will be pushed back into June. If this happens I am not likely to stick around for them, because it’s an abnormal situation and I will just write them off. The third scenario is that the strike continues right through to the end of semester, or at least to the end of May by which point it will be far too late to catch up on anything. What consequence that has for the permanent students I’m not sure but as far as I’m concerned those modules would just be written off. Right now I am hoping that the strike does continue to the end of May because this would be the simplest situation; that way I can concentrate fully on the modules I do still have (two Spanish, two French, one Science), and write off the others entirely. It’s fortunate that in fact my grades this year don’t matter to my final UK degree; this year is an addition to the normal 3 years and not a replacement. Some people I know, the Americans like Sonia in particular who are here for just this semester, are replacing one of their US semesters with the one here – so the grades they get this year do count for their final degree. What impact that has when they don’t get any because of the strike, I don’t know.