Those crazy French - always on strike

On October 5, I had an orientation meeting in St Brieuc (pronounced sant bree-yuh), which is a bigger town about 45 minutes from here. On October 4, there was a big protest in the same town, and Geraldine, the teacher with whom I work the most often, invited me to go with her, since I seemed like the type who would appreciated a good uprising now and again. The general idea of the demonstration (manifestation) was that the people were asking the government to quit worrying about making money, and worry about the citizens themselves. In other words, they don't want the government to start taking away social services in general. There were quite a few teachers from Lycee Kerraoul there, and they all got a kick out of it that the Americaine wanted to come along. The demonstration itself lasted a few hours. After everybody gathered in the main square, we all marched through the streets of most of the city. Some were holding signs, some were chanting, but all was calm. The general esprit was very calm and organized. I had lunch with a few teachers, and then I stayed in St Brieuc since my orientation was there the next morning anyway. I had already sent an email to one of the English assistants in St Brieuc, Kirstin (also from MI), so I had a place to stay. That night I met Kirstin, Elsa (British), and Chris (also British), and we all became fast friends. I was told that at the Edinburg(where Chris goes to school) zoo, once a day they let the penguins out to walk around!!! Edinburg is now on my travel list!