ski trip pictures

hey guys, these are some photos from the IEP ski trip to le Corbier.

must ski, must drink, must...persevere

me eating an apple at lunch


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um tis, um tis, throw dem bows


matthieu, barracuda, julien, nico, and manu


yours truly on his ass, to be a familiar sight of the week


a view from the lift line

schools back in session (not really)

whats up everybody, i just got back from aix en provence. great town, great weather, great time. it was a 17 hour bus ride filled with plenty of french sing alongs that at times took place between 3 and 6 oclock in the morning. i played basketball and rugby which is surprising, but they were both real fun. my school is the smallest political science institute in france and we usually come in last place, no surprise the wooden spoon is ours again this year. i have no voice left from shouting "paris paris, stick it up your ass" as the 8 institutes seem to unite against paris, the largest school. this is going to be short because we have an assembly to vote to continue the strike, today was a general strike which im sure yall have finally heard about, pictures from the ski trip and aix en provence to come.

well everybody the creme brulée gave me le chiasse....the runs. not good. oh well, you live and you learn. we're still on strike, national day of manifestation tomorrow, supposedly all the train stations in france will be blocked off, but we'll see. Im not too hot on going to the train station and getting tear gassed, i might be sitting tommorrow out.

on another note, the duo, is working on a demo, please check out their new tracks

What's up everyone, this is to be the first of posts not actually written on the internet, but posted at a later time, as i don't have internet in my dorm room. Today the strike was voted until wednesday with a possible general strike on thursday. what is a general strike you ask? It's quasi-legendary here in france. Apparently, nothing moves the day of the general strike; the buses, the trains, all major transportation and other unionized employees go on strike for the day and I imagine, we will vote the strike for thursday and possibly friday as well. It is quite the battle between students who want to start classes back and others who want to stay on strike. What is interesting is that at Villejean University, one of the larger universities in my town, about 20,000, has been on strike for SIX WEEKS! Villejean was one of the first universities in France to move to strike, so apparently if they ever stop, the movement may end. On another note, apparently whenever there is any new legislation involving changes to social laws, strikes break out across the country, it seems as though the French are stubborn to change, stubborn to let go of their largely socialist ways. In any case, i just cooked some dinner here at the dorm and ate a store bought creme brulée that is four days past expiration, it was so good i ate another. We'll see how it turns out. It also seems that anglophone news sources are picking up on the unrest, what have you guys heard??

the strike continues

apparently more than 250,000 people manifested yesterday (according to police) and more than 500,000 (according to student unions.) There is always that small bit of discrepancy between the two sides as to how many people showed up. last night at a general assembly of 288 people (more than half of my small schools student body) a strike was voted for today and monday. this weekend, on saturday there will be large demonstrations throughout france with students and labor union members. Im leaving this afternoon to go to angers to see robert plant and the strange sensations again, and i believe we will go to the manifestation on saturday morning in angers. i believe that the story is getting american press now, so keep your eyes open for it. hope everybody has a great weekend and for those of you in baton rouge, happy st patty's day. for those of you close to baton rouge, go there, st patty's day is ridiculous.

le manif

last night the strike passed around 170 to 70 in favor. so this morning i decided to meet up at school with those who were protesting and see what it was all about. We marched and were joined by some students from the law school and by some high school students before arriving at the square that has the mayors office. Some students had forced their way in, im guessing, and were out on the balconies, im not sure how many thousands of people were there i would guess 5 to 10. We then proceeded to march through town for about 2 hours, blocking traffic, and of course chanting chants against the CPE. It was really interesting to see so many people out against something that their government is trying to pass, it's hard to imagine something like that happening in the US but i believe that strikes and demonstrations aren't a part of our history like they our a part of theirs. here is a pretty cool website that has a litte info on what happened in paris

and here is another blog with up to date information about the situation

CPE

last week, there was a national strike. The strike was against the CPE. The CPE is a program that allows for a trial period of 2 months when a young person is hired for his first job. during this trial period, the enterprise doesnt pay into his retirement pension and he or she can be fired because it is a trial period. Now they have changed the duration to two years leading to what many youth see as an extended period of precarity and uncertainty. Some feel this law favors corporations and capitalism and treats workers (especially young people, since the only modification was to the program concerning the first job) as disposable. A larger university in my town has been blockaded by students for 5 weeks. That means no classes, the university is on strike, because of the students. Last tuesday, my little political science school was blockaded, and we were part of the 37 universitys that were on strike. tonight we have an assembly to vote on blockading again tomorrow, as more than 40 universities will be on strike and estimates of 1 million people will be in the streets throughout france. Im voting strike.

where to begin

saturday morning i left rennes, headed to geneva, what awaited me, i knew not. As I approached the geneva train station and therefore the swiss border it dawned on me that i had not a passport and only a LA drivers liscence as identification. I frantically sent a text message to my sister and jennie who were waiting on me at the station, yes they said, you need a passport, to get into switzerland. damn, i said to myself, damn, damn, damn. a passport is something you dont forget. I walked out of the train and noticed that the tracks were suspended about one story off of the street, i could jump if i had to. As i left "France" i showed my drivers liscence and my student ID to the french customs official who was far from pleased, commenting how typical it was for an american to arrive like that. fuck it, i said, im getting into switzerland. i walked another 10 meters down the hall towards the swiss border, the swiss customs official, less than pleased asked me to wait aside while the others who had their proper documents passed by. five minutes later, everyone had passed, and the french lady came remarking how they shouldnt let me pass and if they did, she wouldnt let me back in france. Adding, that we think we can just cross the border with our fishing liscences or whatever we had. Hearing this, i sprung up, punched her in her stomach, grabbed my suitcase on wheels and ran for the sliding glass door that led to the train station. it was not an easy getaway with the suitcase, the doors slid open and i frantically searched the station for georgia and jennie. Seeing them in the café, i quickly gave the international (we WERE in geneva) signal for i punched the customs official, i dont have a passport, lets haul ass. They picked up on it quickly and we split. Yes, if i was just a little drunker, or crazier, or didnt have a suitcase on wheels thats how it wouldve happened. i continue, hearing what the french customs woman said, i said to myself, damn..damn, damn, shut up, its none of your business if they let me in switzerland, your french. they asked me if i had family in geneva (my sister waiting for me in the train station and my cousin waiting on us in town) they let me slide on the condition that someone fax my papers.
We met my cousin and his four friends, one of which who lives in geneva and we went to eat fondue. After the 2 gallons of cheese, we went to a bar and waited on allen (the american who lives in geneva) to get a call from his connection that was get us into some crazy club. we got two bottles of skyy vodka at this club and cans of redbull and pitchers of OJ. Little did we know but this was to be a theme for the weekend. We drank there and went across town, taking out some festive swiss money along the way. we arrived at Java, and waited on alex, his little brother, a german chick, an OBGYN, and a swiss student to arrive. They did and we were ushered through sub-zero-esque doors, past a glowing purple wall and into an adjacent restaurant. we admired the genevan bourgeoisie and they admired, us, while the table was cleared. Again, bottles of vodka, absolut this time, and whatever mixers were needed, redbull, apple juice, sprite. we drank, spoke english, a bit of french and then took turns going out to the dance floor to just act the donkey.
Arriving on the dance floor, your immediately struck by how bright the lights are, how many people are around you, and how damn good the music is (house dj, it would change about every minute so it never got old) we had to strut our stuff on one of several mini stages placed about the dance floor. i do remember foxy lady, run it, the theme song from star academy, the new puff daddy tune, and maybe run it a few more times. in any case, throughout the night one of cousins friends fell asleep at the table, and another wandered off in geneva. we left the club around 4, found nick (the one who wandered off) by the car and went to the chalet.
at the chalet, situated between some mountaines and overlooking lake geneva, we drank more, ate cheesy bread, and bowtie pasta. The next day we took the uncles van and went in search of food and a view but ended up with just food. that night, the eight of us set out to drink a 4.75 liter of vodka. we didnt succeed. shocking, i know. some made it farther and later than others, i can say that i did not. Needless to say the 5:30 trip to the train station was interesting as most of us had gone to bed around 4:45. I will not post quotes, but things were said, that made, no sense. Later that day i got my faxes of my passport and headed back to rennes.

I hope you've enjoyed my longest blog post ever, have a great week.

well i'm back from le corbier. it was a hellacious trip. we had good weather the first two days and then it just snowed like crazy for the rest of the trip, the last two days the tops of the mountains were closed but we still had GREAT snow. The ski resort was nice, but nothing like telluride or breckeridge. it was four of us in a one bedroom with trundlebed-couches. The skiing and mountain were about the same, but they had so many teleskis, im not sure what it is in english the little seat you stick between your legs and if you snowboard you bust ass and get drug around, yeah those things. We ate like kings and drank like homeless people. The day I got back I went and saw Georgia, Jennie, and William in Paris, then Georgia and Jennie came back to Rennes. They stayed a couple of nights and then left for Brussells, Belgium the "capitol" of Europe. I will try to post some pictures of the ski trip in a few days. Its finally starting to get warmer here. and its the weekend, everyone have a good one.