Day of Strikes-Day 94-April 13th, 2018

Despite staying up a bit later the night before, I woke up surprisingly refreshed. My morning rituals were the same as they always were. I  finished my box of Frosties this morning and am hoping it would be replaced by a new one tomorrow. Anne-Marie works in mysterious ways.

Me eating breakfast next to a vase with flowers from the yard.

Despite rumors of student demonstrations, I didn’t want to get my hopes up and assumed my classes would continual as normal. Right after I go on the train to go to class, I got a message saying that our school building was completely blocked off. Instead, our French culture class would be held in the BU office. I guess this makes sense as our class is entirely BU students.

I got off the next stop and waited for the tram to come to take me in the opposite direction. I got off the tram stop near the office and was surprised to run into our professor for French culture class. This was lucky for her, because she didn’t know where the BU office was. I was more than happy to show her the way.

When we got to the office, one or two of my classmates were waiting there. The office was locked, but Celine came to unlock it a few minutes later. I didn’t mind still having class because I was going to go anyway. Plus, our professor commutes all the way from Lyon and I’m glad she didn’t just have to turn around and go home. That would have been particularly annoying situation for her, since none of the trains were running due to SNCF strikes. It is a very tense time in France right now.

Despite the last minute location change and being the day for break, almost every single person showed up for class. We spent a lot of time in class discussing the student protests and whether this could happen at BU. It was an interesting discussion because we all agreed that our education at BU was so expensive that it would be a waste to skip classes in protest, especially at a private university. I guess this really shows the difference between American and French education.

Despite being three hours long, class went by pretty quickly and I appreciated the new setting. After class, I stuck around the office for a bit because I wanted to play the guitar there. I tried to teach myself a new song, but it’s hard to commit to learning a new song when I only play once a month. I will have to pick up guitar again when I come home from France.

Once I gave up on the new song/got bored with the guitar, I headed home for the day. The rest of my classes were obviously cancelled due to the strike. It wouldn’t be possible to make the French students come to the office for our physics class. I wanted to go to the university to see the blocked buildings in person, but I had other things to get done.

Luckily some of my classmates went and I can just steal their picture

When I got back from class, I spent some time doing some research on flights. My grandmother has been very sick lately and is going to enter hospice care soon. This means that she will likely pass away in the next week. After some discussion with my family and Celine, the BU program director, I decided that I want to return to the US for the funeral services. I am going to stay for a few days, then return to France. This was not an easy decision to make, but I think it is the right one.

Due to the timing of things, I likely am going to be in Italy when my grandma passes away. Knowing this, I have found cheap flights from Italy to the US for every day I am going to be away. When I find out my grandma has passed away, I’ll buy the flight for that day, cancel the rest of my trip, and fly home. I will likely come back to France by the next Tuesday or Wednesday. Even if my reason for coming home will be a sad one, I am still looking forward to being home for a few days and seeing my family.

After making a document with all the possible flights and travel plans, I got changed to head to the gym. Today I worked on my chest and core. While I was bench pressing, some random guy offered to spot me, which I happily accepted. This meant I could push myself a bit harder than usual. The rest of my workout went well and I headed home.

I showered and ate a pre-made salad for dinner after getting home. I was still a bit hungry, so I made some instant ramen. After eating, I facetimed my friend Hana from BU for a while. This weekend is a big one for Boston. Monday is the day of the Boston Marathon and arguably the most important day of the year for BU and Boston overall.

This Monday is known as Patriot’s day, but more commonly referred to as “Marathon Monday”. Pretty much everything in the city shuts down except for the actual race and the Red Sox game. The Red Sox game on Marathon Monday is the only MLB game per season to start in the morning. Understandably, this is a huge day of partying and drinking for BU students with all the excitement going on in the city. I missed Marathon Monday my freshman year due to the timing of Easter and am a bit sad I’m missing it again this year. At least I have two more Marathon Mondays before I graduate.

The rest of my evening was relatively boring. I watched an episode of White Collar and an especially good episode of the Sopranos. I was feeling pretty tired by 11 PM and went to bed.