Citizens in training

I had three students yesterday. Two in my first class, one in my second, and none in my third. The rest were all on strike. The eternal tradeoff between fabulous working conditions/job security and low unemployment. Apparently the government is considering creating these positions just for young workers that lack the job security French workers normally get, in order to create more of them and lower unemployment among young workers. I've talked both to people who are outraged about this and others who think it's a good idea and that everytime the government tries to change anything people are rallied to strike. At any rate, I'm wondering whether these jobs don't already exist in some form, as my friend T. in Paris hasn't managed to land a permanent job anywhere but has been working a series of temporary positions at the company that provides my cell phone service (and has had very little time off even by American standards).

On a completely unrelated note: I went to Lourdes last weekend, it was fantastic, I wrote in a notebook about it but haven't gotten around to transferring anything to cyberspace yet.

On another completely unrelated note: The little boy that belongs to I guess the campus ministry person just turned two. Last week during adoration he kept wandering around the room, trying to blow out all the candles. We figured he was practicing. Today we all sing happy birthday to him (in English and then in French...which seems to be the way it is normally done and I don't know why) and wait for him to blow out his two candles...and he just sits there smiling at us all with his tongue stuck out between his teeth until someone near him finally has to do the job. Kids.