Solidarité

"Sol Sol Sol, Solidarité! Sol Sol Sol, Solidarité!" Maybe I should write this in CAPS to get the point across: "SOL SOL SOL, SOLIDARITÉ!!!!!" This chant is ringing in my ears at the moment.

Watch a quick video of it here (and this was only the beginning... a weak cry compared to what followed!):

The MUNACA strike here at McGill has now been going on for three official weeks. If you want to read an article about it in the McGill Daily (student-run newspaper), you can here: http://issuu.com/mcgilldaily/docs/vol101issu2/1. But I'm not going to detail the strike issues at this point, because I don't want to relay any incorrect information, and I don't want to bore you if you don't want to stay up-to-date on current events here in Montréal...

Anyhow, at this very moment, I am sitting in the giant lecture hall in one of McGill's less beautiful buildings, Leacock, beside one of McGill's more beautiful students, my lovely friend Schmall. And ABOVE US, McGill students who have decided to take their support of the strikers to the next level are chanting "SOLIDARITÉ!" (In case you didn't make the connection, yes, "solidarité" does mean "solidarity"!) Even in terms of picket lines, I noticed today that strikers had moved from just marching at campus entrances to walking up and down the street, blowing whistles, banging drums, and chanting all the while. And now the ever so supportive students have deemed it suitable to bring the noise ON campus, into the buildings. I'm trying to focus on my Psychology class (and yes, this blog posting :P), but it's almost impossible. The sound comes in waves (haha, pun! and we're talking about sensory perception in class today) as the group picks up energy and yells more and more loudly. They have drums too! I'm kind of surprised that they're allowed to be here, right by all of the lecture halls and classrooms... And drums, really?

Ah well, I understand the point of annoying us: so we'll DO something.

Oh gosh, they're cheering (loudly) for themselves now! This is an energy-pick-up moment to be certain. Huzzah, more yelling. Maybe I will send an email to our allegedly over-paid and over-benefitted principal...

Read about that here: http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/09/principal’s-salary-contract-reveals-details-of-perks-2/.

Oh no! Would you look at this: Psych class is ending early because our professor (who happens to be one of the nicest profs/people I've yet met - he walked through the aisles and said hi to everyone today!) said that "the demonstration got to [him]". So... time to pack up I suppose - twenty minutes before the lecture officially ends. I guess the strikers are making themselves heard.

One of the stranger things that happened today.

Don't get your hopes up though - it's not crazy exciting or anything!

Somebody posted a link on Facebook, and it was for a product at Urban Outfitters. So I clicked the link. Here, you try it: http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/. Did it work? Because GUESS WHAT. Apparently, due to the Charter of the French Language (aka Bill 101), we folks stationed out here in La Belle Province aren't allowed to visit the site, because it's not yet offered in French. Intéressant. So what's an Anglophone girl to do? This is actually funny. It's not as if I were a hardcore online shopper or any such thing, but what if I was? And what if I fancied shopping online at urbanoutfitters.com? Well I wouldn't be able to! I thought that the internet was a place of freedom, at least in Canada. But I'm not allowed to enter the website simply because of my geographical situation while using the internet. I suppose Québec is an exception in this as in so many other things.

Obviously this isn't that big of a deal in how it affects my Urban Outfitters website visiting, but it came as a bit of a surprise to me. It makes me wonder what other sites are off-limits because they're not offered in French...

Classes

I heart physics. And deductive logic, because it's like math. Why am I in arts? Bonne question.

The first couple weeks of classes have been overwhelming, to say the least. I love my mash-up of courses:

French - Français fonctionnel avancé

Psychology - Intro to Psych

Poli Sci - The Government of Canada

Philosophy - Intro to Deductive Logic

Physics - Space, Time, and Matter

(I should probably start spelling French with "ph" - Phrench, so that it can fit in with the "P" theme!)

But, this mash-up means that there is next to no overlap in my courses' subject matter, and so my mind is constantly being yanked all over the place! It can be fun though.

My Poli Sci course may sound dry, but the professor is a gem - he brings in all kinds of current issues, and is passionate about the subject matter.

In Psych, our prof wants so desperately to find some way of connecting with his 650 students that he read through the entire class list, every single name! Something about how priming the brain like this will make him more likely to remember our names if any of us go to talk to him in person. He also looked at each of our pictures from the university database to get a better idea of who we are - you might think that that sounds creepy, but really, it's endearing.

And my physics professor is so friendly! He keeps telling us about his work with lasers, which sounds so cool, and is very open to questions. Plus, come on, it's theoretical physics for non-physics majors! How much better can it get?! Special and general relativity, time, light cones, quantum theory, time travel, matter and anti-matter, cosmology... :) :) :)

For Philosophy, I really have to read the textbook to make sense of anything, but I am always able to pay attention in class - the professor makes me laugh with how he mutters that certain propositions (or is the correct term "premises"?) would be "utter nonsense", and how "we certainly can't allow for that". And he says things in a such a dead-pan way, with a dry British accent. Win. Plus I get to learn a new language for the class: FOL! Points for philosophy.

And well French, need I say more? It's French, and I can tell that this year-long course will help me improve by leaps and bounds ... At least I hope! Plus the professor is completely comprehensible, with no difficult accent, and is so clear and organized.

Wow. Haha, I'm assuming that that would be a tad boring to the outside reader, but I do believe this has been a therapeutic exercise - I now feel quite fortunate to have all of the professors that I do, they're really quite a good lot :) Though I'll let you know how I feel once mid-terms roll around...

La grève

You know what's funny? When the day of your first classes is also the day when the university support staff decide to go on strike.

In front of the Roddick Gates.