La grève, l'internet, et le ciné

I've touched on it before, but today's entry will be dedicated to that most beloved of French pastimes: going on strike. As opposed to last week's student strike, this one was at the national level with all public services doing their part to make sure that nothing was running as it should! I hear there was a huge demonstration in Saint-Etienne that many of the students were going to (and a few teachers as well), but since the trains weren't running normally I decided not to chance it. I also was supposed to have three classes today, but as it turns out none of them happened (one because of a scheduling error, and the other two because the prof didn't show up; though it doesn't really matter because there were no students to teach). So of my supposed 12 hours a week of class, it looks like I only have to do two this week. Nice.

All organizations tied to the government had the choice to strike or not, and seemed to do so with varying degrees of success: the post office and trains have limited services, and maybe half the teachers and a quarter of the students came to school today. This strike was much less obvious than the student strike last week; no one was barred entry to the school so much as people just didn't bother to show up. I'm sure some people instead went to Saint-Etienne, but I also heard at least one prof say yesterday that it was as good an excuse as any to take a day off and relax.

Also going on strike (though not intentionally) is the internet. Fanny and I have been facing an ongoing battle with the SFR office in town and their silly misdirections. As soon as we were able, we went and set up an account to get internet, TV, and telephone as part of their "neufbox" deal. But as opposed to a modem being shipped to your house like in the US, they told us we had to go pick it up at a delivery point 4 miles out of town that turned out to be a home furnishings store. Fanny got a text message saying the line was activated and the modem was ready to be picked up, and a very awesome teacher offered to go out of his way to drive me over there and back on Friday afternoon. However, the delivery point had no record of our account, despite the paper I had to the contrary. With everything being closed on weekends and Mondays, Fanny and I waited until today to go hassle the SFR boutique about where it had run off to. They told us that the package had been delivered to the school, except it being Saturday no one was there to answer for it. So now we should be able to pick it up from the post office... if only they weren't on strike!

Despite the strike, we decided to try anyway. The lady at the post office was extremely helpful and told us to keep it secret that she was breaking the strike to go next door to the parcel office to look for our box, but she found it! So it was with a rather high degree of euphoria that Fanny and I came home from the market, laden down not only with fresh fruit and veggies but almost certain knowledge of unlimited, unblocked internet from here on out.

Alas, it was not to be. When it didn't work after several tries, I went over to the school and roped Claire into seeing if she could help us, since she would probably have a better shot getting through to SFR's customer service than us. Whereas the US often outsources customer service to India these days, France outsources it to North Africa, and a combination of French technical terms and an unfamiliar accent would probably have been a little overwhelming for Fanny or me. As it turns out, our line is cut and they're going to try to fix it remotely (is it possible to fix a severed line from afar? Stay tuned to find out...), and then if all else fails they say they'll send a technician over in a few days. So maybe late this week or hopefully early next week at the latest I'll be able to use Facebook again, just as I'm getting used to life without it!

Moving on to a more non-strike related topic, Fanny and I tried out Feurs' Ciné last night, which was showing Le Bruit des Glaçons (The Clink of Ice), in which an alcoholic writer is paid a visit by a physical manifestation of his cancer. It was a rather strange film, but at least it was not at all predictable as many comedies tend to be! The cinema itself is really nice and almost certainly a converted theatre. Ciné Feurs shows two different films per week and at has least one showing per day. When we showed up at the theatre to buy our tickets last night, one old man rather adorably told us to hurry and pick seats, because il y a déjà pas mal de gens! (there are already a bunch of people). A quick glance inside showed us that yes indeed, a whole 10 or 12 patrons had taken seats in this 100-seat theatre.

We decided to test out the balcony and sat in what are quite possibly the most comfortable movie theater seats I've ever sat in. Whatever else one might say about Feurs, you cannot deny that it's got a nice cinema! I also enjoyed that instead of ads before the movie, we saw this lovely banner draped in front of the screen that advertises local businesses.

I also recently learned that there's a running club in the area that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:30 in the high school parking lot (very convenient) and then goes on a long run in the countryside on the weekends, so I'm going to try it out tonight... or in 15 minutes, actually. You have to pay to be part of the club, but first I need to find out if I'm even fast enough to run with these people before I decide if the fee is worth paying.

Bonne journée et à la prochaine!