FIRE

yesterday I came to school. got off the bus and saw a ton of students out front, but fortunatly i was able to get in. i started class and things were going well... until I smelled somethiing. i stopped my students and asked them if they smelled something. we ran to the windows, saw nothing, one of my students opened the door and the hallway was filled with smoke... we grabbed our stuff, we ran out of the room. one girl called the firemen, we knocked on the all the doors to let them know there was a fire...

we ran outside to wait on the firemen... they came.. found out someone had started a trash can fire right next door to my class. the alam never went off. one of my students was crying.

im going to be well prepared for any challenges i may encounter in teaching or in life after this year;

right now as i write this blog, its during one of my classes... noone showed up. but i talked to them this morning sitting out front of the school.

i only have i month left in france. im sad just thinking about it.

for those of you who dont know, i am moving to japan in june/july to teach english there. it will sure be interesting.

my birthday is in 17 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my life

well its been a few days since i last blogged. i didnt end up working at all last week and looks like i wont be working (or doing anything for that matter) tomorrow. there is a giant strike. so looks like no transportation, no school, nothing....

but lets see whats happened.. i got caught in tear gas last thursday. but dont worry, i ran out of it. i was on my way to the metro and saw smoke.. but it wasnt smoke. and my eyes nose and throat started burning. but i ran out and away. had a bad attitude about france for about 2o min. then all was better.

friday night we had a chinese outreach. we ate a chinese dinner, talked, watched the jesus film in chinese and then had a small discussion time. at the end there was an opportunity to pray and some of my chinese friends prayed!

saturday with ruth lise, david, oliver, oliviers sister and her friend, we went to mount saint victoire. we hiked uphill for like a straight 2 hours. towards the end, i was dying. when david and i got to the top, we saw a well and started drinking until some man came and told us that it wasnt drinkiable. my thoughts were....im either going to die from dehydration or water poisioning.. i chose the water poisoning. besides, it was just rain water.

then we came back down and i went home and watched a movie with rachel. dont watch message in a bottle. i hate thes e dumb movies with sad endings....

sunday when i tried to get up for church, i hurt so stinkin bad. so i went to church but skipped the meal and the hike afterwards. i came back and relaxed. then we had a crepe eating time with some taiwanese and chinese friends. good times. rach came with me.

when we got home, raquel was there with a friend and so we hung out and talked. then this morning raquels friend and i went to the jewelry store and then we met raquel because they were goign to avignon.


i cant believe its already the 27th or march!

my birthday is soon. ill be 23 real soon! i'll also be in the US real soon. like 5 weeks. so weird.

well have a good day. just so you all know its warm in marseille. like 65 or more degrees. nice enough to wear a skirt or a tshirt! I LOVE SPRING!

you cant really see, but there is a fire in the distance. 

shopping carts and the blue car was one that the students were trying to pick up and put in the middle of the street. 

FIRE!!!!!!  

look.. a student trying to climb into the school! 

one of these trash cans caught on fire. 

the principal and asst. principal checking out the situation 

can you see the chains on the door? 

the sign says lycee bloque. blocked school 

students 

the students outside the gates 

you can see the signs and trash cans. this is the entrance to my school. 

me as an ?elephant? 

notice the bread in his nose. hahah this was us decorating him for one of the dares 

truth or dare....eat a raw egg! 

long jump! 

monkeys 

me getting attacked 

ruth lise's brother and i on the bridge for the obstacle course 

ruth lise and vero at isle de frioul a few weeks ago 

me at isle de frioul 

the boys in the tree 

when i went hiking 2 weeks ago with friends from church 

more fun at my high school

the past few days and especially yesterday, i have witnessed mass chaos in the nice little high school where i work...or worked..considering i havent worked this week yet... and in the past 3 weeks, 17 of my classes have been cancelled.

let me start. yesterday I got off the bus only to see hundreds of students blocking thegate. there were trash cans and signs galore. one of my favorite parts was when my student walked by me pushing a trash can to block the door and said "hello" then i walked into the school. no students were being admitted. i went ot my first class and there were 3 students. we played taboo. then the teacher and i had a break so we went outside to see the action...and oh what action we saw.

students yelling, throwing glass bottles around and at cars driving by. dumping huge recycling bins, picking up cars (or trying to) to put them in the middle of the road. breaking cars. pushing shopping carts in the road. starting fires in trash cans.... just to talk about a few things i witnessed. studernts were trying to climb over the gate to get into the school grounds to break things.

so i did what any other foreigner would do... i got out my camera. i took pictures and lots of them. im sure the principal and asst. principal were thrilled that the american was taking pictures of the craziness.

we were not allowed to leave school grounds. no classes.. nothing. i just hung out. the police and riot police came. they threw tear gas bombs at the students. students were running in all directions. im talking about like 10 or so tear gas bombs. the air was full of it. the trash bins were burning.

i ended up leaving at noon...even though i was supposed to stay till 6. but there were no students and i was not looking forward to staying inside all day.

now fast forward to this morning... i went to school. on my way there, i saw students running down the middle of the street with signs (a different high school) and i got all the more nervous to see what i was goign to see at my high school. when i got off the bus, it was relatively calm. i talked to a few of my students. some of them were frustrated casue they wanted to go to class but the school wasnt letting students come in. so they will get marked absent. i dont agree with that. i went in, i talked to a teacher. no students. so i left. apparently tomorrow will be the same and friday is a maybe and next tuesday forget it.....everyone is goign on strike next tuesday.

so these are the adventures of jen eureka. i have never seen anythign like this before.. and to be honest neither have many of the french. this has been an exception. mostof the french ive talked to have told me that this is more than usual.

the students are striking over a law that will allow employers to fire people anytime they want. i know there is more to that... but i am not really that sure what else. feel free to comment on this.

ok look at the pictures..


also this past weekend i went to oyonnax with ruth lise and vero to visit ruth lise's brother. we drove up there (4hrs) friday night and hung out. we went hiking around and we went to a frozen lake. there was snow there! ruth lise tried to break the ice and her foot got soaking wet. then we went sledding without sleds. we watched 3 movies. the something of the flying daggers.. effroyable jardin and another one that i forgot the name. we ate a lot. we went to church on sunday. monday afternoon we came back. i got back, went running with olivier. he stayed for a nice american dinner of macaroni and cheese and taco salad. hahah. then him and i met our other friends at the movies and saw truman capote.

this is my life.

chaos

so an update for this morning. i came to school and had 1 class. as i am waiting for my 2 class, i hear glass breaking and screaming and the teachers all come intot he teachers lounge and locked all the doors: apparently about 200 students from other schools came to get this high school to strike as well and they decided to break glass and windows and write all over the walls...

this is unbelieveable. but thankfully its calmed down. there are people standing at all the doors and checking id for everyone who enters/ personnally i think michael moore ought to do a documentary on this...

a typical day at school

today i went in to school to teach my 2 classes of the day. upon arrival, i stopped at the gate by 2 rows of high school students who told me i didnt have the right to enter. with that i responded...i dont care, and pushed passed them. i went up to my classeroom-doubting that anyone would be there.. but yes my 4 students came. one was late becuase she had a hard time getting past the great wall of french high school students.

we proceeded as normal until the last 15 minutes when we heard lots of yelling and horn honking. with that we ran to the hallway to look out the window and students were pouring out of the school and 3 girls holding signs had climbed on top of the bus stop to yell to the crowd. then a student came and told my students that their next teacher told them not to go to class but rather GO OUT AND PARTICIPATE IN THE STRIKE!! so when the bell rang, they ran out along with all the other students and it was a mad house. they told me not to leave or i wont get back in...they asked me to join them.. in response i said "no, im not french. americans dont do this kind of thing" hahaha

i watched the crazy students block the road. tap on cars. yell. jump around. etc. then i had 3 of my 10 students come to the next class. the funny thing is... when i went to leave at 11, there was noone outside. no signs of any strike.. weird...

so far this week i have had all of my classes. thats a first in i dont knwo how many weeks/months. theres still a chance that something will be cancelled tomorrow.



tuesday night we decided to see how many people we could cram into a tiny tiny apartment and eat together (aka bible study) and we had like 20 or so people all sitting in a studio apartment that was the size of my dorm room. fun times had by all.

we also finally changed our lightbulbs. we've had like 5 burnt out bilbs for a few weeks now, but when the bathroom one burned out-we decided to do something. so we changed them all. (just so you know, the lightbulbs are different here in france. so its been a complicated thing and we always forget to ask for assistance)

theresa my old roommate has the chickenpox for the second time in her life. the poor girl. shes had problems like every week shes been in france. i doubt she ever returns.

my birthday is in exactly 1 month from today. ill be 23!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah!

things are good here. been kinda busy trying to do everything before i leave. im so not ready. i wish i could stay for longer... oh well. ill be back sometime.

have a good day! dont go on strike.

haha

go to this link. especially if your name is stanley steamer or his lady friend. or if youre curious.

http://www.collegehumor.com/movies/106148/

hello!!!!!! 

the back 

my new haircut!