What a day full-to-the-brim with excitement! The EGL power company went on strike today for nearly three hours! They hold the monopoly on electricity so there really isn’t much that can be done about it and they have systematically each week for the past few months been shutting off power in various parts of Lille. Today it was our sector and oh boy did it ever throw a wrench in things. No power point for staff meeting, no computer system to answer students’ questions, no accessible records, nothing. Everyone was furious and at the same time, student demonstrations started taking place right outside the university library. Gunshots, screaming, colorful outfits…To my surprise (and luckily) they weren’t protesting the power outage, they were rallying for a new student body leader!
Dean Van Peteghem spoke with Kami and me today after the staff meeting and told us that he and his family would be pleased if we’d join them for a weekend to their beach home in a few weeks. We were thrilled to hear that and we’re glad to have each other seeing as we’re the only Americans and Mormons around. She will only be here another month, but at least I’ll have a friend for awhile.
Tonight, Kami and I went to the train station and went through the ringer to get a monthly metro pass. First they denied us because we didn’t have a passport size ID photo to give them, then, after we’d gone to a booth and brought back a picture like they said, they told us they’d already shut down their computers so to come back on Saturday. What a pain :) – Oh well, all part of the adventure. This evening Kami and I explored a busy part of Lille we hadn’t yet seen and then decided to see the movie Coco Avant Chanel that seems to be all the rage here. It was fabulous! Audrey Tautou does an excellent job playing the feisty Coco and the storyline closely following her life was moving and beautiful. I’ve seen an English version with mom and this was fairly similar and just as good.
Lastly, there is a two month-long exposition going on in Lille this summer called Europe-XXL and as part of it, some of the eastern European countries have brought in several modern statues and placed them downtown. Most of them feature babies in the forms of dragons and strange things like that. I tried to take a picture so hopefully it’s clear enough to see. --I love the feeling at the end of the day of aching feet and tired eyes, which means I’ve explored to the max and had a full day. Until the next time…xo