Living in a culturally catholic country

I got a late start today and ending up leaving the house at around 12:0 or so to go to Dauphine. Since I don't have internet, Dauphine is where I go to not only to study but also to use the internet to read the news, send e-mails, write blogposts, etc. It takes me about a half an hour by metro so I got there a bit before 1:00. I was looking forward to 6 or 7 hours of alternately studying french and international law, checking out what's going on in the US, making a few skype calls and generally connecting with home.

Much to my chagrin, however, the school was closed. Not just closed but locked, padlocked. WTF? It has been open every other Saturday I have gone there. In fact, even though the library closes at 1:00 on Saturday, the building itself is open at least until 8:00 or so.


So, anyway, I was pretty pissed because I just traveled by metro for 35 minutes to get to the one place I thought I could really study only to find out it was close. Plus, this was lining up to be yet another example of how things are uncertain here. Why was it closed today and not any other Saturday?

Regardless, I was determined to stay and use the internet so I found a place around back where I could sit out of the rain and make a few skype calls. Yeah, I almost forgot, it was raining too, just to make matters worse.

Here's me trying to protect my computer from the bit of rain that is still falling on me. Of course, I am not studying, I am catching up on what the mighty Lakers have been doing.
Here's the view from outside the coat, or at least in an attempt at it.
Here's a bad picture of me. I am no longer mad here, just concentrating; sometimes they look the same.

See, here's a crooked smile that indicates I am happy about being here. Let's not forget, I am in Paris right now, not St. Louis, so it is not all bad.

And, there I sat for two hours making a few phone calls, commiserating with other people sitting out in the rain and cold (mostly homeless people looking to take my dry and not terribly cold place to sit).

Finally, a security guard came around and asked me what I was doing out there. I told him that I usually come up to the school on Saturday to do some work and was surprised to find out that it was closed today. He replied that today was a holiday and that was why it was closed. Yes, the school is closed because of Halloween, or more accurately, All Saints Day.

I have to admit that this is another example where my American framework threw me off. First, Halloween is not a day off from school in America so I didn't even think about it. Second, there was nothing posted about this that I saw at the university. Third, although I now know that All Saints Day is a fairly big deal of a religions holiday here and elsewhere throughout the world, part of what throws me off is that, in my understanding of Halloween in America, religious people don't even let their kids participate because it is all about devils and witches and what not. Finally, and perhaps most important, I thought this was a secular country. I guess I don't know why there is a national holiday to celebrate left over saints who didn't get their own day but muslim women can't wear the head scarf at school based, least ostensibly, on the idea that religious symbolism is not allowed.

Just so I am clear on this, having a national holiday and a two week vacation from school for a bunch of saints is not at all religious symbolism and thus is fine; wearing a head scarf most definitely is religious and is not to be tolerated.

Fine, I guess I will just add this to the exponentially expanding list of things I have learned about how things happen in France.