Student Strikes

I am here on the comupter in the English department instead of with Juan Carlo´s science class because of the student stikes that are on this week from Tuesday until Friday. The stikes are about resource cuts, increased class sizes and staff being used to teach multiple subjects even if they aren´t qualifed to do so. All classes here that I have seen have at least 30 students and some classes have a screen connected to the computer, but it seems a 50-50 chance that it works on any given day. Most of the classes there are just chalk boards. While that is definitely limiting I have to admit that it is fun to use actual chalk and not a white board. I am still here and not back at hoeme or doing something more exciting with my day because high schools here are from age 11 to 19 and the first two years aren´t allowed to participate in the stike. Or rather, they are allowed but their absences will not be excused whereas they will with the older students, provided their parents sign the sheet explaining the stike etc. My next class is with second years, so here I am. This past weekend I was planning on going to Tarifa on Sunday, as I have been told there are amazing beaches there by a numer of people. But, on the day of I slept in and didn´t know the bus schedule blah blah in the end of it all HIlairie and I went to San Roque, the two which is a 25 minute bus ride North and up the hill from La Linea.As we were there on a sunday it was very very quiet, there were people out eating at cafes in the central plaza but other than that the streets were deserted and businesses closed. That set the stage for a bathroom emergency when we were wandering around and all of the sudden there were no businesses anywhere that were open with a bathroom...but I digress.



San Roque was absurdly quaint, a cute Spanish town in everyway that La Linea is not. Everything was painted white, with cobblestone roads and tiled entranceways to houses and most importantly the views. It it situated at the crown of a hill with 360 views of the surrounding countryside. La Linea, Gibraltar, the Strait, Algeciras, Los Barrios, the oil tankers waiting expectantly for what I´m not sure, the tall stacks of the oil refinery outside La Linea, the rocky green hillside north of the city dotted with windmills, giving it a very Quixote flavor, with blue skies as the background. Very satisfactory. We had lunch with the woooorrrrsstt service ever, really they outdid themselves, which is saying something because restaurantand bar service in Spain is bad, as a rule. Anyways, I have class soon, so I must go! I can´t wait for my camera cord to get here ! Also I finally got keys to the apartment!! I can get into my house all on my own!! yay!!