I gave blood today for the first time. This morning I saw the Etablissement Francais du Sang (French Blood Establishment) setting up, so after an hour of English class I went back and donated. I've always wanted to give blood, but was never able to in the United States because the only time the American Red Cross came to my high school I had a cross country race in the afternoon. I think if I did that if would be called "anti-doping."
This weekend was also the first time for a few other things for me - riding a motorcycle being the first. My host father drove us to my host sister Marine's basketball game for some of the first half and the whole second half. Then I had another first experience - fixing a motorcycle. Unfortunately Philippe forgot to remove the lock on his disc brake and started driving, which stopped us within a couple feet. In stopping us it bent the disc brake, so Philippe rode the motorcycle back slowly while I rode back in the car. Luckily motorcycles are just like heavy bikes, so I was able to remove the disc and "cold press" it back into place. Cold pressing is a more discreet way of saying "pounding with a heavy hammer," or "squeezing in a vice." So the disc brake is temporarily fixed, but a new one needs to be bought soon...
There's more news about the teacher's strike, also. They are still striking, but not in the traditional not-working and walking-in-a-circle-holding-signs way. Instead, they're not giving grades. That means that any assignments I get back with have comments like "Good," "Exactly," or "Completely Wrong" on them, but will not be graded. Nor will I have my average at the end of the trimester. I understand the teachers position and their strike, but it is pissing a lot of students off because it affects really only them. However, by affecting the students the strike also gets to their parents, who are also obviously the voters. In conclusion, I'm not real sure about what I think of all this, but we'll see how it turns out.
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