The first strike...

So little did I know but apparently I have moved to Lyon right as a massive transportation strike is starting--lucky me! Beginning on Thursday, the metro/tram workers went on strike for more money or less hours or something like that, meaning that half of the metro lines in the city aren't running and the trams and buses are running on limited and somewhat random schedules. The good thing is that my school (or at least the primary one--just found out that the other one is out in the middle of NOWHERE-VILLE north of Lyon) is on one of the automatic metro lines so it isn't affected during strikes like this. It does make getting around to look at apartments more difficult since two of the main lines aren't running at all...

Which brings me to the double entendre of the title of this post. My first day of looking at apartments yesterday was craziness. I mean, finding an apartment with random roommates is hard enough when you're doing it in your own language. In French, in a city with 120,000 students all also panicked about finding housing, it's basically impossible. I saw three places yesterday, each with serious advantages and disadvantages, but I'm still holding out for something better. I went and saw this amazing place today with Rachel that I LOVE, but it's a little pricey and she's not sure she can afford it and the woman renting it wants to rent it to two people, preferably who know each other. We have to let her know by tomorrow morning so we'll see. I'm just already burned out on looking and it's only been a couple of days! Sigh. C'est la vie.

On the bright side, it's a gorgeous day here and I'm planning on going to see a soccer game tonight: Lyon against Toulouse. Yay! Not entirely sure how to get there with no metro running, but I'll figure it out.

Still haven't had my first crepe--creperies just don't seem to be as common here as in Paris... :(