ScPo Woes

Wednesday found me sitting at a long table in the Petit Salon at ScPo. It’s an open hall off the main entryway where they hold functions or exhibits, but usually have space set up for students to work or hangout or whatever. I was sitting right under a bronzed plaque set in marble of Emile Boutmy “Fondateur et directeur de l’école 1871-1906” (Founder and director of the school). The rest of the walls have similar memorials hanging on them to commemorate the men who were responsible for the school back when it was originally created as the “Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques” in the 1870s. Ironically, since I’m in a country that prides itself for its long glorious history and considers the U.S. a “young” nation, the University of Florida is older.

I was sitting in there because I had arranged to meet with my partner for the oral presentation required by my NGOs in International Relations class. I was both relieved and worried about having a partner who is French. On one hand, having a native speaker is a great advantage, but we had been warned about the coldness of the French students and there is always the possibility for it being awkward and stressful. As it turned out though, my partner seems very nice, which is god because we made plans for her to come over on Sunday night to practice our presentation before we did it for the class Monday morning. I’m excited about having my first french student visitor to my apartment! Her name is Loren and she’s from just outside of Paris and it’s her first semester at Sciences Po, so this is her first oral as well as mine. She had already made an outline for the presentation and done all the organizational stuff herself which was wonderful because it would have taken me hours to figure out on my own.

One of my classes, Intro to the Arab World, is a “major” french class which means it has a lecture section and the discussion section, much like the system for big lecture classes in the US. I had been going to the lecture section these past 3 weeks, but my discussion section had been canceled 3 weeks running. So finally we get an email from the secretariat saying that we will be having class this Thursday. I’m a little frustrated because everyone else is already doing presentations and book reports and essays and our class doesn’t even know what is going on. So I go to class and we’re all sitting there when the head of the secretariate comes in. She tells us that the professor who was supposed to teach our class has been having some serious health issues. He thought he would be well enough to teach this semester and so they just cancelled class the first few weeks, but his doctor now says he can’t work right now. So long story short, he’s not our teacher anymore, and instead, they got a professor who was already teaching another discussion section for this class to take ours on as well and he will be here shortly and not to worry because the people at ScPo know the situation and understand. Ooookay. A few minutes later, in walks M. El Oifi. He took one look around the room, said it was too small and went to get one of the concierges to find us a new room. We relocated next door and M. Oifi started speaking.

Oh brother.

Not only does he talk 90 miles a minute, but he his pronunciation is very thick and mumbled, tinged with an arabic accent. My French business professor at UF talked ridiculously fast about stuff I wouldn’t have understood in English, which greatly helped to prepare me for this semester of lectures and people speaking fast. However, my ability to understand drops off quickly when it’s not spoken in a crisp Parisian accent. He just started talking and I had no idea what he was saying for the first 5 mins of the class. I was just getting to where I could decipher his words when this loud noise starts beeping. Everyone looks at each other. “Is that the fire alarm?” the professor asks. We all sit there, unsure of whether we are supposed to leave or not, when one of the little concierge guys runs into the room. “What are you doing?! It’s a fire alarm! Get out! Don’t take your stuff, GO!” Well call me foolhardy, but it’s 40 degrees outside, I’m not about to go stand out in the cold for who-knows-how-long without a jacket. So we all grab our stuff and follow a couple other classes out the emergency exits to stand on the street. It’s 10:30 in the morning and there are about 60 ScPo students and 3 professors standing out on the swanky boulevard Saint Germain in the cold. We don’t know if it is an electrical problem, or a drill, or if the building we are standing next to is actually on fire. All I know, is a fire alarm 10 mins into the class that has been cancelled for 3 weeks, well, that’s gotta be a sign that this class should not take place.

We stood outside for about 10 mins and then they told us to go back inside. I dunno what the deal was, but anyway, our class finally got underway. By the end of the class I was ready to cry. I had been thinking I didn’t have a lot of work this semester, but this one class has more work for it than for all my other classes put together. A 7 page paper, a 10 minute oral, a book report, a midterm, and a 4 hour essay final. All in French, and all about a subject I have virtually no background in and can barely understand the teacher. AND, because it was cancelled for 3 weeks and we have to make up the time, we are going to have three 2-hour makeup classes later in the semester. It was NOT a good day.