your daily news report straight from Angers

Breaking news from the Université d'Angers...the strike has been prolonged until at least March 29. Which means that of the 31 days in the month of March, students in Angers will have actually been in class for no more than 6 days.

Elsewhere in Angers, or rather, everywhere in Angers, the sun has also declared a strike, in refusing to show us its beautiful face for three days now. We'll see how long it can hold out, hopefully it's not quite as stubborn as French college students.

In sports, Mallory Piehl was once again victorious in Scrabble contests, yet held winless in poker battles against James Killick and Stephanie Bunch.

As for the economy, we've witnessed the return of amazingly low prices on the Multi-Vitamin juice at the Super U, stock up kids, it'll only last for so long, and you've got another boring week ahead of you. Also, Milka chocolate is being sold at season-low prices, go for the multi-pack, you'll inhale that Belgian goodness.

And in entertainment....haha, good luck. Finding entertainment in Angers is like finding a word that rhymes with orange. Equally impossible and fruitless endeavors.

three strikes and you're out!

Never before has that phrase been more true! The student assembly at my university voted to strike for the third time yesterday...extending my extra spring break until noon on Wednesday. Which basically means that in a period of roughly 25 days, I will have had only 4 days of class. The news reports say that 50 of the 84 universities in France are on strike, and some have been in this state for 5 weeks already. So it could be quite awhile until I'm back in school if the French government continues to be stubborn.

Oh, and last night I had a dream that I was going to be performing with the Dixie Chicks at a big concert, only I lost my voice a few hours before I was supposed to go on. Luckily I knew how to play the violin in my dream, so I didn't miss out on my time in the spotlight.

a question i've been asking for years...finally answered

that question being...

What does Piehl mean?

The answer: It's German, and it's used as a nickname for a tall, thin man. So when you people call me Piehl, you're calling me a man. If only I knew how to feminize nouns in German, I could do that to Piehl and create a new last name for myself. I'll work on it, I've got some German connections here in France.

my pizza hut dream

It's storytime from Mallory's dreamland!

Last night I had a dream that I had been hired as a waitress at Pizza Hut. When I showed up for my first day of what I assumed to be training, they slapped a pad of paper and a pen in my hand and told me to get to work because I had customers waiting. So I set off to take some orders, which is when I discovered that I was in France, or at least I was speaking in French to my customers and they were paying with euros. I was the only waitress working, and suddenly people came pouring into the restaurant...my family was there, some of my friends were there, and even Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were able to reconcile their differences to make a trip to Pizza Hut. I was doing well waiting on about 50 people, until someone ordered iced tea to drink, and I panicked...I don't know how to make iced tea! But I was able to find a customer who did, so all was well. Then as I was going into the kitchen to pick up a pizza, I see Paul Golke, sporting a mullet, in true Paul Golke fashion, picking pepperonis off of the pizza I was about to serve. I ask him what he's doing, and he says he came to tell me that I'd been hired back at camp, and that the camp board could tell that I was a real Lutheran. So then I had to make a decision...Pizza Hut or camp? And that's when I woke up.

a weekend in paris...coming up!

So I just have to say it...how cool is it that I can randomly decide to spend a weekend in Paris without any advance planning...and that I can do it for 35 euros? To explain, the family Shannon is staying with in Paris wants to meet me, so I'm going to spend the weekend with Shannon and them, stay at their house and enjoy some great food! And rumor has it that all the visitors to their house get these cool beaded slippers from Turkey (they're Turkish), that alone is enough to make me come! AND they have a 6 year old daughter, so I'll get to play with a kid!

the kebab...so much more than i bargained for

While I was in Nice, I had the extreme fortune of tasting my first kebab sandwich. Due to a fire on my train, Brian, Sarah, and I didn't get back into town until about 9:00 and by the time the boys got themselves all prettied up, it was 11, and we still had not eaten...leaving us with only two options...McDonalds or kebabs. Being the daring and adventure seeking individuals that we are, we opted for the kebab! So what is a kebab? Well if you ever find yourself in Europe, you will probably walk around the downtown of any major city and notice in the windows of some fast food restaurants one big huge cylinder of meat rotating on a big stick (reminiscent of the shish kabob concept familiar to Americans, but it's so much more!). That my friends, is the source of kebab splendor. I'm not sure what kind of meat it is, if I had to guess I would venture pork, but it's good stuff...as long as you don't look too closely at what you're eating. The kebab connoisseurs take a knife and shave off parts of this huge hunk of meat into a tortilla wrap, throw some fries, lettuce, tomato, and whatever other sauce you desire in it, and you've got a super filling and satisfying meal to go. The kebab is most popular among drunk students, but I can confirm that it's delicious to those of us to swear by sobreity as well. So come visit me in France, I'll take you out for a kebab and fries!

Pope Pius IX...what a pushover!

For a total of about 10 hours today and yesterday I've been working on a history paper about Pope Pius IX's controversial writing, The Syllabus of Errors, in which he condemns 80 propositions of contemporary thought. The fact that he did this is not in and of itself completely appalling, it seems reasonable that he would want to defend the institution that he is leading, but what IS crazy is that the publishing of this document completely contradicts his previous stances regarding the liberal movement in Italy. When the previous pope died, Pius IX was one of the liberal candidates for the papacy, and once he was elected, he set in motion what was thought to be the process of modernization of the states under the power of the pope. The Italians loved him, and even dreamed of creating an Italian federation presided over by him. But then we have 1848, Mazzini, a revolution, and war being declared with Austria, which was being lead by an extremely devout Catholic dynasty...so the Pope stayed true to his doctrine and denonced the war, fled Rome, and came back two years later a staunch conservative, ready to condemn all aspects of liberalism, enlightenment, etc. in order to gain the admiration of the intransigents of the Catholic church.

Anyway, long story short, Pius IX had no real backbone, and I hope the Catholic church never decides to make him a saint.

students on strike!

Yesterday I experienced another first in my life...my first time being a part of a strike! Students at universities across France are currently striking in protest of a new law that the French government is close to passing called the First Job Contract, in which any new hiree under the age of 26 can be fired without reason within the first two years of working for a company. Thursday afternoon there was a large assembly during which the student body government voted to declare a strike from Friday morning until Monday at noon. I was unsure what this meant until I came to campus yesterday morning to work on a paper and found all the entrances to the building where I have classes barricaded with desks and chairs! There was also a manifestation outside my dorm with lots of angry "revolutionary" types protesting this law...always something exciting happening in Angers!

mamma mia!

So while I was in Milan, Italy last week, one morning Sarah and I went to an Italian bakery. We walk in and wait patiently in line to order our pastries, and when it's my turn, I order, and this little old Italian lady behind me starts commending me in Italian for making such a great choice. She grabs my arm and starts spewing off Italian...the only words i caught were "mamma mia!" and "bellisima!" Then an older man came in the shop, and there's Italian flying everywhere, which is understandable, but then again...not understandable because I don't speak Italian! The lady working at the bakery and these two other people just kept going on and on saying "bella" all the time and talking about Sarah and me, it made me feel like I was really a part of an Italian family (if only i had dark hair and skin...).