"URGENT"
Hello,
I am writing this email to you as the University of Paris - Sorbonne has been on strike since the beginning of February on certain campuses, as well as the whole of the Sorbonne starting today. The strike will last until Tuesday the 10th, then there will be a protest on the Wednesday. The movement is highly likely to get worse. Some of you are no longer Erasmus students and have no issue with grades. Do not take any notice of this email; it is important, however, that those who do not have a record of their grades are kept up to date. None of the grades are currently registered as the teachers are on strike. As a result, it is necessary to wait until all of that (registration of grades) is finished.
For students who have stayed on for second semester and for new students: the strike is ongoing and the Sorbonne campus is now affected. There is a chance I may no longer be able to reply to any emails, at least until next Tuesday. It is necessary to consider the possibility of returning to your home country for some students if there is a possibility of completing your second semester at your University. I am not asking anyone to go back. I think, moreover, that I should give you all of the information so that you can judge for yourselves.
Yours sincerely,
And the second one...
"Strike at the Sorbonne"
Hello,
The Sorbonne campus is closed this morning, even if some students have managed to get in. I continue to remind you that the University has not asked anyone to return to their country. You should know nevertheless that there are strikes mostly everywhere and that the situation is getting worse. At midday yesterday, the students, the teachers and the administrators decided upon a total strike. It is up to you to decide what you should do.
Cordially,
So there we have it, ladies and gents.. I've emailed Dan Herman, the Erasmus Co-ordinator from Manchester, asking his advice on what I should do in line with my course requirements at uni (I don't want to have come out here and gone through all this to find out that what I did wasn't valid and not pass the year!). I don't think it's a question of getting a certain number of credits at Manchester Uni (i.e. you get a certain number of credits for every course you complete and pass) - I don't think our results in whatever we study out here really count for this year, as we can study pretty much whatever we like, even if it's not relevant to our degree back in the UK. However, I dare say I'm not quite licensed to hop back over the Channel to the UK, much as I would quite like to right now - this is proving very expensive (I checked my bank balance today and will most likely be scraping by until June :( ) to live out here and I'm not actually doing much productive at the moment as a result of these stupid strikes (although my grammar classes started this week and has given me something to do, albeit very easy stuff that I have done before..!). I've got a trip to Manchester planned for the end of the month, and my thoughts are if nothing has progressed positively in the way of lectures starting by then (the 27th), then I might as well bring my things back over for the Easter holidays, as I'd be coming back to the UK again 8 days after coming back from Manchester anyway, so there would be no point flying back for 8 days of nothing, only to come back to the UK again. I suspect Dan will advise me to get a job or something, however I don't know of anyone who's attempted that out here without having it organised prior to their arrival in Paris, so it could take ages to find one. Either way I think the only real requirements the Uni will have of me will be to stay in France for a certain amount of time, but I'm sure they'll agree that these circumstances were unforeseen, highly unfavourable and out of my control. So we'll see what happens...
In the meantime, I've had a nice long lie in today (my classes don't run on Fridays, however they only start at 4.30pm anyway so I generally get a lie in anyway..!), then got up and made pancakes with Pancetta and Port Salut cheese (which I love! It's the closest thing to Cheddar I've found out here! :p) and listened to a radio show on Radio 1 over the Internet :D ahhh! :)
Now I can hear some kind of small group protesting (?)/shouting outside KFC down my road lol....Seriously, all the French do is strike!!
Hope everything's well at home, Skype is always available and if people give me their landline numbers I can ring when you're free! (As I say I have LOTS of free time at the moment!)
Love you all loads :) xxxxxxx
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