snowing in Paris

So for the past two years that I have been here it barely snowed all winter. This year, now that it is February, it has snowed more than it did while I was back in Canada for the holidays. The difference is, in Paris they handle it a little differently. Firstly, the transportation system. A lot of the trains that go out of the city and are above ground are much slower, less frequent and much more crowded. The slowness and the frequency has to do with the snow on the ground and icy tracks. The crowdedness makes you realize just how many people either walk, drive a scooter or bike to get to work, or just don't like driving in the small amount of snow. So that makes the metros even more crowded and more stressful. Secondly, the sidewalks and roads aren't salted. There hasn't been a lot of snow sticking to the ground but enough, and some ice too. However, they don't have a street crew going around salting and no store owners or apartment building owners are outside salting either. Needless to say, the city is pretty slippery, which doesn't stop all the women from wearing their heels. Thirdly, you would think it had been raining as there are so many people walking around with opened umbrellas. Maybe it happens back home and i just never noticed it, but out here lots of people use umbrellas when it is snowing. It makes sense and all, I had just never seen so many people doing it. I guess it does keep your hair from being ruined from a hat but still, it is only snow! The snow made the past few weeks of cold, grey weather a little better though. It has been mostly grey and cold and with a few flurries. It is also funny that -5 degrees is seen as REALLY cold out here. I can only imagine how most people here would react if they lived somewhere else like Canada or Russia! lol

The first transport strike of 2010

So today was the first fairly significant transportation strike of 2010. Of course, it happens on the day that I need to use 2 different RER (regional trains), both of which are affected by the strike. It probably wouldn't be so bad, if I wasn't on such a precise schedule as well. So first off, I am thankful I wasn't heading to the airport. Not only was it one for every two trains running, but they were only leaving and returning to Gare du Nord and from the upper platforms, which is you are not from the area or haven't been here for awhile, could make things more complicated for sure. However, the trains I needed were still one for every two trains running. Thankfully, I left for teaching early enough that when the one I usually catch was cancelled, I still had enough time to get to work with the following train. However, coming back into the city was a little tight considering that on a good day, I have a 15 minute window to get from that train to the one that takes me to coaching, and of course the one I was on was 10 minutes late getting into the station. Needless to say, I did the unpleasant but sometimes necessary metro station dash. Luckily, the train I was supposed to catch again was cancelled and the one following it was only 10 minutes later. So eventually, I made it to coaching and only 10 minutes late. All things considering it could have been a lot worse. However, coming home tonight was a royal pain in the butt. First, the bus to take me to train station came by 15 minutes early which was while I was still in the gym, therefore I had to wait another half hour for the next. Then I got to the station and the usual trains weren't running and had to wait again for another half hour for a train. This train however, kept switching when it was going to get into the station, it increased by 5 minutes twice, then went back to its original time, then went to 5 minutes early then finally went back to the original time, which was when it arrived. SO after a long day of travels I can honestly say that eventhough I had some difficulties, it did not make my life riduculously crazy, and I was still able to get where I needed. Therefore the whole concept of a strike which would cause major problems in the city, didn't really work out so well. Most people were either not affected at all or very minimally, so if I was the negotiating parties, I would not have been eager to make any changes since the strike didn't really shut down the city as most strikes do back in Canada. Although I can't be too upset because I was still able to get to work and it would have been much worse if I hadn't :)