Greve!!

So, I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow. Well, not really leaving at first, just meeting Margo in Paris and showing her around for a week, and then I'm leaving to Slovakia for about4 days, and then 24 hours in Milan!! When I get back I'll put up more pictures, as it's been so long...sorry.

This will just be a short little post, but lately there has been very interesting going-ons at school. Since school started up again, there have been 3 teachers strikes (or greve) and today was a lycee mort (dead high school), meaning the students were on strike. I think I saw about a total of 30 students that came for classes today, out of 1500. The teachers were all there, however. But I didn't have to do anything, surprise surprise.

The strikes have all been over the same thing. Once a student trying to be a teacher passes a test, they have a job, but not necessarily a post. So, what the government wants to do is condense class sizes so they are up to 35 students per group. This will take away jobs in every school and make it that much more difficult for new teachers to find a post. They will also take away paid work time. I think there might be more to it as well, but that's all I know about it. I haven't been allowed to participate in the strikes as I'm not French, but when there is a strike it generally means that I don't have anything to do. According to the teachers I work with, it could be like this until the school year is over! It's insane. When the teachers strike, only half (or less) of the students come to school because if their teachers are striking, they don't have class. (They only do long-term substitutes here, no one-day substitutes when teachers are sick or gone)

Well, that's been my life this week, as there have been 2 strikes in just the last 3 days. So... I've taught 2 out of my last 6 classes...life's hard.

My new dream in life...

So, this is an idea that Sidney and I have been talking about for the last month or so (since he doesn't read my blog as I've never told him the address, I'll be honest: it's my idea, as he doesn't know Minnesota). I want to open a Boulangerie in Minnesota.

A boulangerie is like a bakery, but so much better. They sell bread of various kinds--baguettes, croissants, pain au chocolat, croissants covered in chocolate, apple/raspberry struddle-type things, then little pattisseries made of various fruits and chocolates, and specialty desserts depending on the season. Cakes, too. There are boulangeries everywhere in France, and everything they sell is always made that day and absolutely delicious. So, I want to open one of these, as croissants are never fresh in MN, I feel, and baguettes are so much better than slices of sandwich bread.

But, I would not just sell bread, so it wouldn't be exactly the same as a French boulangerie. I don't think that I could make enough money to stay open like that, so I'd sell several coffee drinks, too, but coffee and hot chocolate would not be the main part of the Boulangerie, just a huge help to have enough funds to cover/ supplement the bread mission.

I would open this shop on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul, as I feel the people who would shop at a Boulangerie live on Grand or Summit Avenues. Then, after the money starts rolling in, I would start selling French wine and champagne, not to drink there, but to sell. Then, once the first one is well-known over the Cities, I'll open one in Minneapolis, probably the France Avenue neighborhood. Then, I'll take it to Chicago...then....and then....

Ok, this is my idea. The only problem is I don't know how to make bread. And I don't have money for this sort of thing. (Or ovens, a building, or basically anything except an idea). So, if you feel like donating to this cause, feel free...

And I'm an aunt! Eva Marie Kotero was born on Jan. 31st and she is healthy and beautiful!