Les Actualités

So the grèves continue at Paris VII. Luckily, one of my professors appears to not be participating in them, but I’ve already missed two classes of my other course. Regardless, the culture experience this opportunity brings to try to understand France’s culture of social movement and suivre les actualités [follow the news] has been priceless.

You can see my fac [university] at the beginning and then again at the end of this clip:

Télézapping : Enseignants-chercheurs-frondeurs
Uploaded by lemondefr

Also, I just watched President of the French Republic Nicolas Sarkozy give a live press conference/debate in which he addressed la crise [the economic crisis], these strikes and a number of other issues facing Europe and France at the moment. His skill as a debater and orator was evident as he tightly maneuvered around tricky topics. Even among such a packed docket of current issues, Sarkozy took the time to praise Barack Obama for what he, as a man with African origins (this still BLOWS the minds of the French), has already accomplished by being elected. I can’t say that I am always one to agree with Sarko, but occasionally throughout the hour his persuasiveness did push me over. Although I’m not sure that he had much to say in the concrete…