Campus Life - Letters from Dartmouth College Season for striking By Yoko Kubo	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
5月のパリはストライキの季節 風薫る初夏、おしゃれなカフェでカフェオレを楽しむ…なんてのどかな想像とは裏腹に、5月のパリはストライキが全盛期を迎えます。ストで交通機関がまひしてしまうこともしばしばです。現在、短期留学プログラムでパリに滞在中の久保さんも、運のいい(？)ことに、名物のストを実地体験することができました。

横断幕を掲げ、シュプレヒコールをあげながらパリの街を練り歩くデモ参加者

The work seems to have piled up before we realized it. Perhaps we had been a bit carried away with enjoying city life. Spending the term in Paris unfortunately doesn't mean that the Dartmouth curriculum does not apply. We still have to go through the agony of midterms, finals, orals and papers, not to mention an immense amount of reading.

In fact, any spare moment that I have on the metro or before class is now spent with a French novel in one hand and a pocket dictionary in the other. However, our studies have been disrupted recently because of the many strikes and demonstrations that are a routine occurrence in May.

It is true that the French love to protest and would storm the streets armed with banners and tin drums for any reason. Strikes therefore are a frequent occurrence throughout the year. Yet with May 1 being Labor Day, workers find this month the best time to express their dissatisfactions.

There always seems to be something to complain about. The other day, there was a large demonstration of professors and students passing in front of my school, protesting against budget cuts, the reform of the retirement age and the decentralization of the education system.

According to the papers, there were about 15,000 people parading through the streets despite the rainy weather. To me, it almost seemed to have the feel of a carnival. You could see and hear people chanting even a kilometer away, blowing horns, banging drums, throwing fliers in the air, and holding up balloons and banners representing their various schools and unions.

Just recently, the entire public sector went on strike for the second time since I arrived. Transportation on the day of a strike is a nightmare, as there are fewer trains operating than usual. It is impossible to foretell the extent of a strike in advance, and a lot of people choose to take the day off rather than brave the jam-packed metro - think rush-hour on a Tokyo subway. Our professors, of course, had decided to hold classes as per normal, saying that experiencing the strike firsthand was a valuable "learning" experience. However, there weren't any trains at all that day and the metro stations were closed, which my host family told me was rare in Paris. So I had to spend the day at home!

The strike was unexpectedly prolonged by a day, but the metro was running again, so I had to go to class. Being wedged tightly between passengers in the metro and enduring a journey that was nearly double its usual length was not a pleasant experience, but I found that the atmosphere was much friendlier than usual.

Although people complain, I guess they realized they were all in the same boat and so they were more willing to joke about it and help each other out. Even my late arrival at school that morning was greeted not by a lecture but by applause and cries of "You made it!"

The strike continued to the next day, too, when I faced yet another arduous journey to class. Nevertheless, it has proved to be an interesting experience, certainly one that I won't encounter back in Hanover. I believe that it is precisely this sort of thing that cannot be learned from a textbook, but can only be appreciated by going through the experience in the city itself.

Shukan ST: June 13, 2003

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