A(nother) Strike

There's a(nother) strike today, but luckily it only involves "seven civil servant unions including nurses and teachers," and not national rail or mass transportation unions. I haven't seen any effects of the strike, apart from a notice posted at the library entrance: "As a result of a national strike, library functions and services may be affected."

I'm trying to decide where to travel next. I love being in Grenoble and hanging out with friends, but valley fever starts to settle in after a while. It may have something to do with the Chernobyl-like smog cloud hovering over everything.

I rented a snowboard and boots earlier this week and joined the student ski club, Ecole de Glisse. Yesterday was my first full day snowboarding (and the third time ever!). I went with Joanna, an American girl in my dorm. She brought a board from home, but had never snowboarded before so we spent a couple hours going over the basics and then hit the slopes. We had a ton of fun and I was utterly exhausted afterwards. My recovery plan? A mere half-day of snowboarding this afternoon with two Italian girls, Silvia and Beatrice, and Francisco, a funny, energetic Spaniard. I think I'll really rest Saturday, because Sunday morning is the korfball championship (I think), Sunday afternoon is the France-Scotland rugby match with Rachel and her Scottish boyfriend Cameron, and Sunday evening is the Super Bowl with almost every American in Grenoble.

The Oasis concert was fantastic, but my jeans were destroyed after someone stepped on them while I was moving, ripping them up to my knee. Tuesday night Tarek and I went to Le Tord Boyaux (The Twisted Intestine), a quaint wine-bar with live music and delicious saucissons, to see his friend's band play. Wednesday night Christine, Rachel and I had fondue at Stephanie's, a nice girl from Geneva, along with two guys from my basketball team, Jin and Delphin. We played cards, made cheese sculptures and looked up bad words in a French slang dictionary before sprinting to catch the last tram at midnight. Thursday night, after showering and dropping off all my snowboard gear, I went to an art exhibition downtown before turning in for the night.