By popular demand

So, in the vein of politics and because I got a facebook message from my mother, I am dedicating this post to the greve. Oh the greve, how I wish you would give me my trains back. Ok, but actually here is the issue. The government wants to change the retirement age from 60 to 62 and then the second age from 65 to 67. However you can't retire until you have worked a certain amount of years in a row, so basically if you opted to take maternity leave, you may not be able to retire until you are 72, or something ridiculous like that. So everyone is taking to the streets. The woman that was telling me about this is a university student. She got so worked up as she was explaining it to me that she started turning pink. It's just so nice to see young people getting involved in something just because they think it's wrong and not because it directly effects them (which to be honest, can even make kids in the states get off their asses, if they even know anything is going on at all). I wish that our country could be more politically active. Haha! You all thought I was going to come back from India, a hippy who has found god but actually I'm going to come back from Paris as a radical leftist. To be fair, India could very easily be credited for that as well. In closing I would like to leave you with the advice that Uchicago sent to us.
"At least temporarily avoid protests, crowded tourist areas and sights, as well as typically American locations such as McDonalds, (Parisiennes love McDonald's, who knew. It's not even cheap here) Starbucks, Hard Rock Cafe, etc. If you find yourself near an emerging protest, remember that the final stages today and recently have involved violence and a crackdown by the police. NEVER engage in action that could appear to suggest your participation in a demonstration, such as walking along with protesters (for the love of god, don't pretend to care about French politics, we know you don't. Don't even appear to suggest that you care).

There you go. I would be happy to answer any questions as usual through comments.

Love,
Violet