On the first day of Orientation there was a welcome speech in the main ampitheatre of Sciences Po and apparently the last three Presidents of France studied at Sciences Po...except Sarkozy, the current president, he flunked out. That point scared me very much in two ways: the French Republic is led by a man who flunked college (well idk where he went from there so I won't judge too much but still) or that the President of the Republic failed out of Sciences Po -- is it really so hard?! The second thing I found out later in my methodology course that I found fascinating was that apparently Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a professor at Sciences Po and his lectures were SO brilliant and popular that he would speak in the largest ampitheatre on campus and it would be filmed and streamed live so students in other ampitheatres would watch it live like they were in lecture too. Wow.
So yeah, Sciences Po! It's a pretty big deal! So yeah I think there's almost 10,000 students maybe? And it's 40% international students so that's pretty amazing. For the French students, the third year is mandatory abroad at one of ScPo's 300 and some odd partner universities (like Pitt!) and that would be the main factor into such an international population. There is this system called the Buddy Program to help integrate the international students. So far they have been hosting this event called "A Bar A Day" where yeah they list a bar every day with reasonably priced drinks (eh pretty expensive but I guess with good Happy Hours and whatnot) that are good places to hang out in different areas all around the city. So it's really nice exposure and of course an amazing way to meet so many people. I've made a LOT of friends through it, they're all very fun. The only problem is is that Paris bars are all very small and then the Buddy Program is hosting these events so 100+ students show up and it's just packed, everyone's always just hanging out out front of the bars socializing. On the first night, last Monday the 22nd of August, I met up with girls for dinner (just someone posted on FB "hey anyone wanna meet up to eat before the bar?" great how that works nowadays;)) and it ended up being such a fantastic group of people, three Americans and two Australians -- not so exotic, but really nice girls I've hung out with all of them several times since then! And the first night at the bar was really nice, I met many many people. I've been quite the regular with the Bar a Day events and I really don't even go in the bars but it's good to learn the locations for later, but it's always a great place to meet up with people/meet new people and do whatever you want from there! Like the one night was our one friend's birthday, we left the bar, got some bottles of wine at a grocery store, and went down to the Seine right across from the Notre Dame cathedral and celebrated! Permission granted to be very jealous. It's just unbelievable the beauty all around -- I don't take it for granted! It's absolutely surreal.
And okay yes I have gone out every single night for an entire week but I am working hard too I swear. The Welcome Programme began last Wednesday and goes until this Friday. The first day was kind of just a welcome and all the basics and since then I have class every morning 9-11 on methodology. Sciences Po has its whole own unique methodology and it's really horrifying and demanding. So my enseignant, teacher is fantastic, at least when he's not speaking French too fast, but he explains it all so well. In comparing and contrasting the American methodology for an essay to the French, the American is like "here this is what I'm going to prove - Argument/proof - there, look, I proved it." whereas the French is more like...hmm...I can't remember how he explained it but here's what it's all about: introducing les problematiques, the paradoxes. So the mega-parts of ScPo grading are essays and oral presentations and we will need to do an oral presentation in class. Mine will be on "pouvons-nous choisir nos immigres ?" (can we choose our immigrants?) and on Thursday. And see it's not exactly just like talking about the subject or establishing a thesis and proving it...it's just like...about asking questions. I don't know it's really very difficult for me but this approach I think will be AMAZING for me at home university/through future studies and just life I guess. And it's not even like I introduce a question, answer it through several arguments, then voila, but it's like ask a question, of course try and answer it (I think? I can't even tell) then ask another question and conclude with another question. I don't know sounds unsettling. They're also very strict in having perfectly balanced sub-arguments, like the same size paragraphs haha.
But yeah there's fun too in the Welcome Programme! We have a Sciences Po student as our little group leader (we're divided into small groups of class size, maybe 20 people?) and she took us on a tour of the neighborhood ScPo is in -- St. Germain des Pres. On the first day we had a massive picnic in the Jardin de Luxembourg. Yesterday there was a scavenger hunt through the city that lasted five hours my goodness -- I came in second place, won a nice little French book. There's also other lectures like politics in France and the History of Paris. There'll be a soiree cinema, a wine and cheese tomorrow night, an evening on the Champ de Mars, a ride on the Bateaux Mouches (the boats along the seine), library visit, and more. So it's really full of nice fun things to get to know people :)
Dane will come visit Paris for the first time on Wednesday and in the evening is the first big party of the year, hosted by the Association Sportive, the student athletic board, on a boat on the Seine. I'm very well looking forward to it! But well...I have an oral presentation at 9am on Thursday so I'm working hard to prepare for it now and the coming days and no worries I have my priorities 100% in order! There's just way too much fun to be had here, all the experiences, all the beauty my god. Did I mention I'm like 3 blocks away from Notre Dame? Like 5 minutes walking. Then 3 minutes the other way, I'm at the Pantheon. Isn't that AMAZING?! It's really unbelievable here. So now that you have a novel of my experience so far, I will wrap this up and continue researching immigration and trying to formulate some problematiques. Thank you for reading ! x
