I have a train ticket, but no classes

First, let me tell you about my recent purchases. As you can see, I did buy some shoes. They're super comfortable and super French. I got them at a store called Andre and I must love them because, as everyone who knows me understands, I'm not a fan of shoe shopping. I also finally found a bag of plain M&Ms at Monoprix; M&Ms are my kryptonite and I hadn't had any since December until Monday. Finally, I bought a French car magazine called L'auto journal. At the back it has a list of new-car prices and it's kind of shocking how expensive cars here are: for example, a Volkswagen Jetta starts at the equivalent of nearly $27,000 and can reach $36,700 fully loaded!

Secondly, I'm very intrigued by what my blog's hit counter reveals. As I expected, most of the hits come from England, the U.S., and France. But I've also gotten hits from Israel, China, the Ukraine, Brazil, Chile and Belgium. Very odd.

Anyway, yesterday my morning class was canceled so I got up at 7:30 a.m. for naught. Fortunately, I did have my afternoon class, another round of France en Perspective that covered the Hun invasions of France, Charlemagne, and the emergence of the Royaume de France.

Today we had a meeting with our exchange program about how we can still get transfer credits in the U.S. despite the strikes. It's a two-part solution. Primarily, we need to carry on reading the books from our classes' syllabi and going to class each week "just in case" our professors show up. Secondly, we're gonna to start keeping a journal that records whether we have class or not and what schoolwork we do outside of class (ie. reading required books). And starting next week, the program will attempt to find us tutors who can teach us outside of class.

It's good that we'll still be learning and working toward getting credits, but it's unfortunate that we don't know how long the strike will last, and that we can't go to La Fac despite all we're paying. The good news is that only three of my six classes are actually being canceled due to the strikes, so I at least have some classes each week. Even so, I can't wait for the end of this grêve.

I also finally bought tickets to return to Aix from Italy. I tried to buy them online several times but kept being told about a technical error. Yesterday I went to the train station in person and had to wait in line for about 15 minutes, but was able to buy my ticket very quickly once I got to the counter. Everything's now ready for my trip to Italy (Milan and Florence) during our one-week break at the end of February!