I have developed this bad habit of going to sleep very late at night. That’s why when the alarm went off at 5AM this morning I really had difficult waking up. But I was determined to make it to school no matter what; so after snoozing for about 15 minutes I finally got out of bed. Last night I had made my master plan for this morning: wake up really early and try to catch a metro sometime between 6AM and 7AM. 7 o’clock was more or less my cut-off time if I needed to walk to school. I made it to the metro station at around 615AM, when the temperature was around 1 degree Celsius (31-33 degrees Fahrenheit), thinking it was going to be quite full. See, on a regular basis the wagons on this line are always full; no matter the time of the day. This was my main concern, not being able to get inside the metro if in fact one showed up. I get there and it was like a ghost town. No attendants and no ticket control. I saw 2 women getting out and asked them what was going on but they replied that there were no trains running. I looked at the monitor at the entrance of the station which had what was supposed to be the latest information on the operation of the different metro lines and it stated that for this specific line 1 out of 6 trains would operate. Based on what I know on the frequency of this particular train on a regular basis I quickly calculated more or less how often they would be running today: I’m sorry, I’m an engineer. These things are part of my nature. So as the women exited the station I decided to ignore them and find out for myself whether or there was a metro I could take. I went down stairs to the platform and found some people waiting. Not too many…but there were still people waiting. I said to myself: if they are waiting maybe is because they also waited here yesterday and they were able to get on a metro. I decided to wait. About every 2 or 3 minutes a message was being repeated over the loud speakers. It said something to the fact that due to the strike the metro line was heavily “perturbé”. Since no one moved after the announcements I continued waiting. 15 minutes later I see a metro approaching on the other direction. I saw that as a sign of hope. I continued waiting. Another 10 or 15 minutes later another metro: on the other direction. Finally, a train shows up at around 7AM on the direction I needed to take. The train stopped but it was impossible to get on. It was totally full. I attempted to look for a place from the outside but forget it. So this lady who was standing next to me told me not to worry because another train was coming in 2 minutes. And she was right. Thank God another train showed up 2 minutes later and on this one there was plenty of space. Once I got on I knew I was saved and at least if I had to walk today it was going to be only one way. The 30-35 ride took an hour and 10 minutes this time around. The train was going very slow, it would stop for a longer period of time at each station to allow passengers to get out, get in, and accommodate. 2 or 3 stops after mine the train was already packed. Talk about total violation of your personal space. As some of you know I tend to be somewhat claustrophobic so this ride seemed like an eternity to me. I had to close my eyes and visualize that I was somewhere else: just forget about the place where I was standing. At some stations there were employees from the metro system standing around the platforms and whose job was just to help manually close the doors from the outside by pushing and squeezing the people inside the wagon if they had to. You know how when you have too many things in your suitcase and it does not close you squeeze the suitcase with one hand and then pull the zipper with the other to try to close it? This is exactly what was going on.
On any given day I change trains along the way in order to end up at a station which is about 1 to 2 minutes away from the school. This time around I did not want to risk my luck so I took this one metro all the way to a station that is about 15 minutes by foot from the school. Not bad at all. I made it to school about 30 minutes before the class which gave me then time to have a coffee and a croissant.
After class I went straight to the metro station instead of my usual walk to somewhere interesting in Paris. I was not sure once again how often the trains would be operating and thought it was better to catch the train right after 1PM and not later in the afternoon when everyone was trying to get home after work. Once again I lucked out. I waited about 10 minutes until a train showed up; and it was one which still had sufficient space. As I was getting home they started making announcement that my line was going to start operating 1 train every 45 minutes. So yes…I was very happy with my decision to attempt to get back home right after school. Tomorrow I’m going to go through the same drill and hopefully I will be able to once again catch the metro to and from school. According to the news things are improving. Both regional/suburban trains as well as the metro system increased the number of trains which operated and 40% of the buses operated as opposed to 10% yesterday. They are also saying “la gréve” will only last until the weekend. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
On any given day I change trains along the way in order to end up at a station which is about 1 to 2 minutes away from the school. This time around I did not want to risk my luck so I took this one metro all the way to a station that is about 15 minutes by foot from the school. Not bad at all. I made it to school about 30 minutes before the class which gave me then time to have a coffee and a croissant.
After class I went straight to the metro station instead of my usual walk to somewhere interesting in Paris. I was not sure once again how often the trains would be operating and thought it was better to catch the train right after 1PM and not later in the afternoon when everyone was trying to get home after work. Once again I lucked out. I waited about 10 minutes until a train showed up; and it was one which still had sufficient space. As I was getting home they started making announcement that my line was going to start operating 1 train every 45 minutes. So yes…I was very happy with my decision to attempt to get back home right after school. Tomorrow I’m going to go through the same drill and hopefully I will be able to once again catch the metro to and from school. According to the news things are improving. Both regional/suburban trains as well as the metro system increased the number of trains which operated and 40% of the buses operated as opposed to 10% yesterday. They are also saying “la gréve” will only last until the weekend. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
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