Sciences Po

According to the French students who were at orientation, Sciences Po is considered the “Harvard” of France. While I always had assumed that the Sorbonne was the top institution, I met a girl who was spending one semester at Sorbonne and one semester Sciences Po. I asked her why she did not just go to one of the schools for the whole year, she responded that she did not think she could handle an entire year at Sciences Po. At orientation the school did quite a bit of bragging about how they had educated the past two presidents of France. Needless to say, all of the students are scared to death, not having known the rigor of the classes. We have already been warned on several occasions about the “old school” French teachers who are very strict. The vice president warned that French institutions do not have the same “student friendly” qualities of American institutions.

On a more positive note, this school is quite interesting in the fact that Americans make up only 25-30% of the exchange students. While English is spoken by most of the students, so far I have made friends from Norway, Brazil, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. It is fascinating comparing stories with these students and learning about differences in our cultures. I keep telling them that I feel stupid because they all know everything about American politics and culture, while I could not tell them the first thing about their countries. They insure me that it is fine because it is somewhat necessary for them to know about the U.S. do to her position in international affairs. While I struggle with French as my second language, my friends here are struggling with French as their third, fourth, or even fifth language.

Yesterday I spent the day with Ida (Norway) and Alexandre (Brazil). After class we went and purchased a book that is required for class, then I showed them my apartment, we walked through Le Grande Epicerie (imagine Whole Foods but cooler, bigger, and more expensive), and then ate dinner at a Mexican themed restaurant called Mexi & Co. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries so I have no pictures of my new friends, but hopefully soon.