Student Strike

I didn't want to get up this morning. As my dad says: 5Am comes awful early. Plus my foot still hurts from Saturday and I'm walking with a slight limp. I could have called off, but I did make a cake for "my kids" in addition to buying a bunch of American junk food. I love my kids. So with cake in hand and a bookbag full of goodies, I set off for Nemours. About 15 minutes into my walk to the high school, my foot starts screaming (this is after my hour commute). Grr. I told myself: another 10 minutes and you'll be there, suck it up. So I sucked it up. At t-8 minutes into almost being there, I notice a lot of teenagers milling around. Interesting. At t-9 minutes, I come upon the entire student body chanting outside the school. It's blocked Madame someone tells me. The students aren't letting anyone in or out the main gates. As a protest to the new education laws, the students are refusing to go to school today. Good for them - I hope they actually know what they're protesting against because neither I nor any of my native tutorees have any idea (ok, that's a lie. I sort of have an idea, but honestly cannot give an informed summary of the entire situation. My tutorees have even less of an idea.).

Because my school loves me, they recently changed the locks to the side gates and haven't given me a new key. Alas, there I am with cake in hand and a burning foot standing amidst a bunch of protesting high school students without a way to get in the school. I stand like an idiot for a few minutes before deciding it's not my fight. Shrugging, I promptly hobble back to the train station. The next train's in 90 minutes, which gives me lots of time to fume about the whole situation. In my anger/frustration/pain, I may or may not have eaten 80% of the cake.