Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Another Day, Another Strike

There was another strike today. I didn't really notice anything until late in the day.

Milena (one of the girls in the Humanities program with me) and I took the bus to the center this morning and managed to get a seat. And I almost fell asleep in French class. And philosophy class was good. And then I scanned my intern acceptance letter to the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. Milena and I then walked from the center to Chinatown. On the way we saw some strikers and took a couple of pictures without them noticing...I will get them from her later and post them.

We went to the supermarket les freres Tang and bought a lot of food for very very cheap. Milena got a dragonfruit! I should take a picture of the dragonfruit (notice how I have an obsession with taking pictures?). Anyways, I got satay sauce and pad thai sauce and massaman curry mix and rice. And pork rolls.

She and I then walked to the closest bus stop a few blocks away (of course, after much confusion and doubt on my part...I thought that we were headed in the wrong direction, but her inner compass is amazing and got us where we needed to go). The traffic was horrendous. I remembered that there was a strike today and that we were close to Place d'Italie, where the strike was ending. We stopped by a little pastry shop on the way to the bus stop and she bought some delicious mini tarts. Our French was pretty bad and the shop lady had to get a paper and pen to explain to me that 7 or 8 mini tarts costs 3.50 euros (a bargain!). Oh well. Milena asked for 8 and the lady gave us 9, probably because our French was so terrible. (I can't have any tarts. No sweets until the 18th. So far it isn't bad! Knock on wood of course.) We waited at the bus stop maybe 30, 45 minutes before we gave up and walked back to the metro stop closest to the center. And then home to make our pork rolls. Delicious.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

no sweets!? Sacre bleu! (<-I'm sure I've misspelled that but I'm also sure that my pronunciation would be even worse. ^_~)

Good luck on that, sweetie!

David said...

I was in Pakistan doing language study when the Ayatollah Khomeini was holding American hostages in Iran. Anti-American feeling was strong in Iran (gee, sounds familiar). Some terrorists took over the Ka'aba Sharif in Mecca and Khomeini broadcast into Pakistan via shortwave radio that they were funded by the U.S. American buildings (including buildings with "American" on them) were torched throughout Pakistan, and the U.S. government chose to move all "non-essential" personnel out. My wife was at home worrying as it seemed the whole place was up for grabs. My colleagues and I were playing cards and taking walks and waiting for permission to take the train from Islamabad to Lahore to get our stuff and then embark on a trip to India. Everything seemed pretty calm to us. My wife Joyce was worried sick. Interesting how distorted a view we get from the "news."

Elizabeth S said...

Emily: not for long...just until the 16th. Can't wait!
DW: Yeah, my grandmother had my dad email me and asked for me to send her an email and post an entry about how I was ok. The American media really is overplaying the cassuers (the "breakers" literally) who follow the protest, breaking things and doing violence. I haven't seen any of that.