Chapter 89: Homeless Hincks and the Scotsmen

nerd blog post #93

My head is swimming with a million things right now. It has been a month of unanswered questions, moving, striking and general stress. But it has also been peppered with amazing visits. The past six days have definitely been eventful.

I taught on Wednesday and, as I expected, it was pretty chaotic. Students are desperate for answers as to how the semester will go and no one has a clue. It was a very tiring day. Raffi met me after my final class and came to the theatre group with me. He just wanted to watch, and it was nice to have someone see what I have only ever written about. That night, Merrill had a belated birthday party for herself and Raffi was able to experience how we party with our students. It was a great night.

Thursday was a huge travel day. We took the train to Paris (on which I won Scrabble) and it was a challenge lugging my huge suitcase, our picnic lunch and our bags for the week-end through the metro. As I'm moving out tomorrow, I'm only keeping a small amount of clothes with me, and the rest is being stored at Raffi's. After dropping off the unnecessary, we took the metro to the corner of the city to catch our bus to Amsterdam. In a money saving spree, we opted for the eight hour bus ride as opposed to the four hour train ride. I didn't regret this except for the last hour on the way there when some Scotsmen wearing plaid skirts got wasted and starting singing and shouting obnoxiously. Despite requests from other passengers, the loud and vulgar songs did not stop. It was like being at a drunken teen overnight campfire sing-along and I was pretty annoyed by the time we finally got off of the bus. Now. Doctor had been in Prague and was on the bus to Amsterdam when we arrived. He very craftily hid his apartment key where we could find it and we were able to easily get into his apartment. Exhausted, we went to bed almost right away.

Doctor was not too far behind us, and buzzed up around 530am (I think). After quick hugs, we all went back to sleep until a more decent hour. That day, we walked around the whole city. It was Raffi's first time in Amsterdam which always makes touring around more fun. We noted that there were an exceptional number of Scotsmen in kilts (and probably no undies) and found out that there was a big qualifying game on Saturday between Scotland and the Netherlands to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa. The drunkards on the bus was but a taste of what Amsterdam was to see over the week-end... That evening, we cooked a stir fry supreme and eventually headed out to the bar I went to my first night there with Doctor and Steve. It was a fun night.

The next day, we slept in a lot, cooked a breakie feast and headed out on another walk. The night was spent playing games, catching up and lots of laughs. We didn't end up going out as the daytime partying of the Scotsmen was enough to handle. It was nice to just chill with two of my favourites.

Sunday came in a hurry and we took the bus back to Paris. It was fine and has encouraged me to save my pennies and bus. It was very sad saying goodbye to Doctor. Harder than the other times, maybe because of the uncertainty in Rennes. We had good chats about what might be next. We'd like to get a dog.

This morning was a real treat. I was to get on the 7am train back to Rennes as it was the cheapest option and I teach at 5pm on Mondays. But at the station, there was a mob of people waiting for the platform to show up. Turns out, there was a problem with the circuit and trains were not running. The 730 train to Rennes was packed and people were standing. Sooooo I decided to kick it in Paris for a few more hours and try later. At 2pm, I boarded the train and waited almost 45 minutes for it to leave! This meant that I arrived 15 minutes late to my class. Luckily, I team teach so it's not a big deal. But when I finally got to school, she wasn't even there! The class started close to thirty minutes late. Insane.

In other news, the students voted for a complete blockade and I don't teach this week. The president is trying to figure out how to save the semester. I am worried that I'll have to be here in May when I have guests. I was hoping to be in Paris by Easter. But now I don't know. There are other universities in France that have been on strike and have decided to give 50% to everyone for the year. This seems odd but I guess is one way of dealing with it.

It's my last night in the apartment. My room looks big and empty and all of the photos of friends and family are packed away. I wonder how long before I am settled somewhere again. I'm not discouraged, though, and am very grateful for the people here in France that would never let me sleep on a park bench!

Hope you are all well!

Much love,
Hincks.