It was stealth snow; it fell Sunday night when I sleeping.  So I didn't see it until I stepped outside my apartment so early on Monday morning (but still running late) because I had to get all of my copies done before the first class.  3 inches covering everything without a single footprint.  It's then that I could have used snow shoes to get to work since it ended up taking me twice as long to walk to school.  Normally I don't pay too much attention to the weather.  I always dress warmly; I always carry an umbrella.  But this time I felt sort of deceived; I don't mind the snow, but it was cruel to fall when I wasn't paying attention and surprise me when I was running late.

It is Tuesday night which means that I am finished with class for the week, but whew, let me tell you that Mondays and Tuesdays run me completely ragged.  

On top of that we are having our "English Night" on Monday nights.  I am not sure I have mentioned "English Night" before but at our first lecteur meeting our boss encouraged us to set up a night to go to a bar and invite our students so that they would have the opportunity to speak English in a more relaxed atmosphere.  It really caught on last semester, partially because French students don't really have clubs or sororities or fraternities so they don't have too many contexts to meet other students.  But last semester among the 7 lecteurs we got into all sorts of confusion about what bar to have it in and what night of the week so this semester we have the date and time all sorted out, and we will only have it every two weeks because while it's really fun sometimes, it does feel like work other times.  Sometimes it's fun to hang out with the students and show them, "Hey, I am a person too!"  but sometimes hanging out with them gets tedious and or/awkward.

A few weeks ago I started tutoring some doctors, pneomologists to be specific.  Luckily I don't have to do much preparation, and they are nice and receptive.  This tutoring is solidifying my suspicion that after teaching English for so many subjects this year , I will be prepared teach English to any group of people in the future.

I started taking a Spanish class last Thursday.  I was actually looking for a class of one of my Mexican lectrice friends who said I could come, and I stumbled into the class of a different teacher and well just asked her if I could stay.  It was a strike day so there were only 2 students, and I think she was just glad to have someone else present.  Class ended early, and I stayed to chat, and she told me that my Spanish was better than anyone else's in the class (this is NOT a beginner class), and I'm still feeling pretty darn smug about that.

It is strike season again! People in the universities are all up in arms because the gov't wants to change the way teacher/researcher positions work.  A lot of teachers are withholding the grades from last semester in rebellion--to the dismay of the students, some of whom are not sure they will graduate now. All of my classes were cancelled last Tuesday, and I was still paid (oh joy of joys!)--because the day was "banalisée" which means that classes were cancelled so that everyone could discuss the reforms.  Now it seems like there will be massive professor strikes, although I will not be affected--if I strike, I don't get paid!  Plus, I don't care about teacher/researcher reforms.  It's going to mean a lower turn out in my classes from the students because they won't bother coming when most of their other classes are cancelled.  I'm not sure if I am happy or sad about this.

The strikes are not limited to the universities--trams, trains, you name it, just about everyone is striking.  Someone told me that they are striking to tell Sarkozy to do something about the economic crisis, but I just can't understand how someone could think that not working would help alleviate the suffering from the crisis?