Protest!

I don't feel like working today. I don't feel like going to school today. Hey, let's go on strike!
Okay. So I know that there are actual reasons why most people go on strike, but it gets pretty annoying. Italians seem to go on strike a lot. Here's a short posting about some of the recent school strikes. Well, actually I don't know what the issues are because I don't understand the Italian news and newspapers. But here are some pictures from one of the student strikes that have been happening a lot lately.

Protesting in front of the church of Santa Croce. Yes, you are correct. That's my hood.

Most of the protesters, accustomed to being in the classroom, sit down in nice rows and columns, perhaps in alphabetic order.

The school riots here have been nothing compared to what has happened in Rome and some other cities. This one was peaceful.

If you look closely you might be able to see our local liquor store in the distance. Oh, back to the strike...

This student was not too serious to take some time out of her busy striking schedule to pick her nose.

As I sit here at Sarah's school writing this, there is a bus strike in effect which led to me having to bum a ride home from a co-worker and will make us late for dinner on the other side of town where a visiting friend will surely be sad by our absence. There's also a train strike. These nationwide transportation strikes are not uncommon here, while bus strikes are even more common. The thing that gets me is the manner in which they strike. They plan these usually day-long strikes in advance and let everyone know as to cause as little inconvenience as possible. Well it is still quite inconvenient. They also only strike for a predetermined amount of time. The funniest thing is that, like today, they ran the buses until 9:15 this morning, stopped service, ran them again for a couple of hours in the afternoon, and then stopped service again for the rest of the day. Admittedly I know nothing about the situation. But it seems to me that they might get more accomplished if they would go on strike less often, but stay on strike until some type of demands were met or settlement was made. But what do I know? Stupid know-it-all American.