Looking Back…

This post goes into my ‘December’ posts, but with coming back to the states and just getting back into the swing of things, I am a bit late.

I got back over here on December 30, after spending Christmas with my family in Montreux, Switzerland and then a few days in Paris. It was great, but I was definitely ready to come back.

It is crazy to think that at one point while abroad, I considered staying for another semester, because I now know that one semester is absolutely perfect.

I think that I for sure would’ve been more reluctant to leave if the metro strike was not going on in Paris. Since December 5, a lot of transportation workers went on strike, led by major unions in France. The entire country of France was shut down. Trains stopped, flights were cancelled, metros halted. Honestly, there is no way to sugar coat it… it was a huge pain.

There are 14 ‘lines’ in Paris that millions use every single day to get around the city. If someone told you that Paris was a city you could walk around in to see all the different monuments and such… they’re kind of wrong. Back to the lines, during the strike, only two worked full time — Lines 1 and 14. The only reason these two worked is that they are automatic and do not need a conductor or whatever they’re called.

Then, maybe six more of the lines worked from 6:30-8:30am and 4:30-7:30pm, basically during rush hours. But, you had to be crazy to try to take it, which I kind of am. It was PACKED and the level of pickpocketing was only rising. Thankfully, I never had to deal with being pickpocketed. A blessing from above!

I love that I can say now that I was a part of a historical movement in Paris, something that many others cannot say. This is one of the longest strikes in their HISTORY. Cool but also unfortunate…