Chapter 77: Vive la Revolution

nerd blog post #84

So I rushed home on Monday evening prepared for a busy week of classes. My two 1.5 hour Master's classes were to start this week and I had spent time on the week-end preparing for them. I was all geared up. My bicycle was ready. My freen ogling skillz were in place. My outfits pressed and laid out. And then? La greve. Blockaded doorways and students on guard. I didn't work one minute this week. I did go into the department a couple of times to print some things and chat with my colleagues. But there were no classes. No one knows how long this will last. Last year it was four weeks. The year before, two months. So time will tell.

I took advantage of the time to do laundry, sip cafe with Merrill and Cynthia, have an elongated Tuesday Tradition and enjoy my new rain boots. I also bought some wool and have started a scarf. Knitting is the perfect skype activity. Though I wish there were peace between the students and teachers and their government, I have been very happy to relax this week.

Benito left yesterday and Cynthia was sad to see him go. So was I, but he'll be back for five days after Reading Week, so that will be nice. Plus, it has been good to spend time with Cynthia alone, like the good ol' days. She leaves tomorrow for India, Merrill is in London, and I leave tonight for Paris.

Oh, last night there was a disaster chez nous. Cynthia blew a fuse by using the dishwasher and laundry machine at the same time. They are stacked one on top of the other in the kitchen and share a plug... Anyways, I open the switchy thing in the closet to fix the breaker and discover that, like many things, it's a completely different system in France. After much fiddling and prodding, we managed to blow another fuse. This left us in partial darkness and without any working outlets. This meant that the fridge wasn't working. In the darkness, we tried to rewind and undo the damage we had caused. We hung up Cynthia's dripping laundry and bailed water out of the bottom of the machine. Then we tried to fix the breakers (shining my bike lights on the breaker board) but with no luck. We worked for over an hour before Alexandre came home and we partially fixed the problem. The kitchen has no light and we have only half of our outlets. But the fridge is fine and Cynthia's laundry is clean. Phew!

So tomorrow I'll meet Cynthia at the train station in Paris and we'll hang out for a couple of hours before I meet Raffi. Then we'll head to Brussels for two nights. It's my first time to Belgium. People are already talking about my muscles in Brussels. I'll show them. On Sunday, I'm going to Amsterdam until Wednesday afternoon. Keith is throwing a party on the Tuesday! More about that latron.

Hope you are all well.

Much love,
Hincks.