Huelga!

Una Huelga!
Today I experienced my first general strike. The past couple days all I have been hearing has been warnings and reminders that today was going to be a chaotic mess. However, I expected it to be worse! Since we had classes today (would’ve been nice if we were at a Spanish school!) I woke up a little earlier than usual, about thirty minutes, and when I walked outside I was expecting to find a ghost town. But actually, people were out doing their usual business. I would say there was probably 1/3 less people out, but about 2/3 of stores and businesses were closed.
I walked to the bus stop, that I usually take, and waited around for about ten minutes until I decided I would try walking to school, something I embarrassingly admit I have not attempted before. I tried following the route of the bus that I remembered. I’m pretty awful at directions, but I based my route on landmarks that eventually lead me the right way. Along the way, I noticed many whole in the wall places (stores, convenient stores etc.) closed, but did find grocery stores and tobacco stores open. I noticed very few buses around, so I wonder how often they came?
Usually there are a lot more people in the streets when I’m on my way to morning classes, but today, at the plaza de Iglesias, I had to stop at a news stand and ask the attendant which direction Calle Miguel Angel was. I asked him, “Buenas, donde esta Calle Miguel Angel?” but my accent is so poor that he replied, “No entiendas.” Yikes, that hurt! After I built up enough confidence to ask another passerby, and this time she understood enough, and pointed me down Calle Martinez Campos, which then rang a bell and I was finally able to make it to school…twenty five minutes late. I noticed there were less students at school and in my class, I found out everyone was late. At least the workout did me good? In Spanish class we learned about the purpose of the strike. I don’t remember experiencing a general strike before this, but it was interesting, and I presume a big enough issue that it shut down a considerable amount of businesses today. It'll be interesting to see what happens...

Follow this video to find out more about the strike…

http://www.euronews.net/2010/09/29/rare-general-strike-hits-spain/