Bring on Week Two

Monday was a day of much confusion. In our schedule it said that we were supposed to have a meeting of all the international students in the amphitheater at 8 am. However there was a sign on the amphitheater saying it had been moved to 10. What’s more, our french class began at 9:30. So we went to class and asked the teacher if we were supposed to go since it was a mandatory meeting. She said it wasn’t mandatory, obviously, since we had class and they wouldn’t schedule a meeting that was obligatory during class. I didn’t tell her, but if she thinks that she doesn’t know a lot about Sciences Po... So She said we could leave if we wanted but that it was really more important for us to be in French class. She said she didn’t care but she made it seem like we would be horrible people if we left. So I stayed and a couple went. I figured it was just a general “hey we’re glad you’ve come to such a wonderful school...blah blah blah.” We met up with the everyone at lunch time and, as it turned out, the meeting lasted 2 hours and was full of important information about classes and grades, etc. etc. etc. Fortunately we knew people who went who could tell us what we missed, but I was a little annoyed that the teacher didn’t know that we had to be there. There was, fortunately, part two of the meeting scheduled for that afternoon, although that wasn’t listed on the schedule.

We hung out until time for the meeting to resume. They took the opportunity to tell us about online class registration, something we’ve all been worried about. And they were less than optimistic. Basically the gist was: you aren’t going to get the classes you want, there’s nothing you can do about it, if you change your mind about a class- too bad, no drop/add, and we’re not going to tell you the times of the classes until the day before registration so that you aren’t picking classes based on time. And on top of that they grade really hard, we’re all going to get bad grades, and the French students aren’t going to like us. Okay so that might be a lose interpretation of what they actually said, but it was very discouraging, and I left the meeting with a less-than-great outlook on life. Plus we had to sit there for two hours while people asked redundant questions that only pertained to one or two people.
Not fun. So after that day it was nice to be able to go home and veg.

Tuesday was a much better day. No depressing meetings, and it was actually a day I had been looking forward to because I had signed up for a tour of the Assemblée Nationale. As part of the welcome program they have extra activities that you can sign up for to experience the city and make more friends. The National Assembly is the lower house of the French parliament and it’s not something you can just walk into and visit, so I was excited to have a chance to tour it. There was a big group of students who wanted to go because well, we’re all a bunch of poli-sci nerds. They gave us the option of using an audi-guide in whatever language you wanted or going with the tour guide in French. I opted for the tour guide. It was pretty neat, like visiting the Capitol building. We were in the main chamber where they meet, and got to go see the rooms where the deputies (Representatives) work and where they hold press conferences, etc. My favorite room in the place was the library. It reminded me of the one in Beauty and the Beast that the Beast gives to Belle as a present. Anyway, we were allowed to take pictures during our tour, though it is normally not allowed, because Parliament isn’t in session so it’s kind of dead around there. However no photography is allowed in the library because there were people working in there, and they probably want to protect the paintings and such too. It was a long tour but very interesting, especially since our guide explained a lot of how the French government works since she knew we probably didn’t know a lot of the details. It’s possible to get a guest pass to go sit in on an assembly meeting, so I may try to do that sometime if I ever have a chance, but she said they basically only work on budget stuff from October-December so it’s not a very exciting time to visit.

a plus tard-
Lyndsey