Post #11

Today is national strike day in France. I didn’t really know what to expect. The French strike, protest, and demonstrate for any reason at any time, it seems. My day was totally unaffected. The streets were a lot quieter than usual (although maybe that was just my paranoid/American perception.) Several lines of the regional Paris trains (RER) operated on a limited basis or were very slow. The RER covers a larger area than the Metro, but has fewer stops. I also heard that many flights were cancelled and that the larger French train system (SNCF) had many trains shut down. I was a little worried because my school/metro line I take to school is on the same road (and two Metro stops down from) the National Assembly and many other government offices, and I have seen lots of protesters in the past, so I was quite surprised to see none at all today!
Life is fairly ordinary. Something I know many people will be suprised to learn is that I have started to drink coffee! Or maybe it isn't that suprising in a city where people love to drink their cafe at the cafe. To be honest, I only drink it at breakfast because the only other beverage provided at the Foyer is water. I have to add a LOT of milk or else I can't drink it. I should add that "a cup of coffee" here is maybe a third of the size of a normal American-sized mug. So overall, I think I will drink it daily here, but once I'm back in NC, I'll switch to my usual glass of milk or orange juice.

Random Parisian photo: This is Napoleon III's formal dining room in the Louvre. I liked the Napoleon III Apartments, as they are called, because it can be very, very difficult to see the Louvre as a residence, which it was for hundreds of years, and these rooms are exactly like they were in the 19th century.