Strike

Apologies for not writing earlier, but I wasn't really doing anything particularly interesting this past month...
If you've been following international news, you might have heard that the French are upset again...It seems that when the government rolled back the retirement age a few years ago to 60, they hadn't quite bet on running out of money and having to increase it back again. Well, with a 35 hour work week, and at least 3 days a month of holidays, having to work past 60 was more than any organized worker could handle, and so the French have been doing what the French do best-STRIKE!
Of course, I'm not much affected either way, and wasn't really paying much attention to the hoopla, until I got to school 3 weeks ago and none of my students showed up. No big deal...I walked the 20 minutes home, came back a few hours later to find my classroom once again...empty...The next day, the entrance to the school was blocked off with gates and trash cans, a few revolutionary-esque students with bandannas were manning the gates stopping any student trying to get in, and the rest of the students were grouped on the street, chatting and trying to figure out if they really wanted to go to class that bad. In the Teacher's Lounge it was explained to me that the students had decided to strike for retirement and refused to let anyone but teachers in, naturally. French students have a long history of striking, and actually successfully contributing to the campaigns they take part in...though, truthfully, I'd say about 1% of the students were actually on strike and the other 99% were home sleeping in. Either way, this is something you would never see in the US because an American kid would get his behind kicked if he tried to stop students from going to school. The strike lasted about 2 weeks, until last Friday when our 1 week vacation began...which is why I've worked a total of 4 hours in the past 3 weeks!
While in Tours I got to watch an official manifestation on the streets. I've never seen anything like it...Hundreds of strikers had organized into groups and were parading slowly up the busiest street in Tours, each singing or playing their favorite fighting song. Some stuck to the traditional "we will fight for freedddoooom" while others were more festive with sambistas and drums...This lasted most of the day, and I have to comment (because I always comment) that the French can be amazingly organized when they're against something.