This week marked the biggest change yet in our Versailles experience so far: we finally started meeting French students! School had been silent for weeks, but suddenly -- yes, as late as October -- they all returned to the ENSA-V in full force. Finally, the student-run café was up and running with well-dressed French kids swarming around it all throughout the day. For a while, the forty-eight of us awkwardly tried to: (a) speak to the French kids without sounding like idiots, and (b) avoid coming off as obnoxious Americans.
But things got much better this week when two of the French studios had their first big meetings. When I say "meetings", I don't mean the usual "studio culture" talk that we would usually hear during the first days of studio in Champaign-Urbana. These French introductory meetings were advertised on posters as "pots" (pronounced poe)... which is apparently a sneaky way of saying insane party.
Yes, it's official: no studio back at home will ever be ANYTHING like the studios here in Versailles. They couldn't be more different: teachers and administrative employees are actually not allowed to enter the studio spaces because they are entirely student-run. Since the studios serve as personal work spaces and not classrooms, they seem to have evolved into idealized "living spaces for architects"... which includes crazy artwork all over the walls, giant sound systems for blasting music, upper levels from which the older students can yell down at the young ones to do work for them, and the freedom to drink and smoke whenever and wherever!
The ENSA-V has three studios, or ateliers, which are called 13, 14, and 19 for some reason. Atelier 19 is a bit smaller and has a reputation for housing the more quiet, studious students, whereas 13 and 14 are very large and rather eclectic. The bigger ones had the meetings this week, which is where several of the Americans got to befriend the French kids over free drinks and loud music. Over the next few weeks, we might have to struggle to find spots amongst the French students in the studios, but everyone there was definitely very friendly and some even invited us to sit by them. Phone numbers have been exchanged, we're learning how to do the French cheek-kissing tradition, and some of us have hung out with the French kids outside of school -- so all is well in Versailles!
-Kim
Hi Kim,
ReplyDeleteI am currently a third year architecture student at Virginia Tech and I'm very interested in studying at ENSA-V next year. I would be applying as a free mover because we don't have any agreement with them, but I was wondering how fluent you need to be in French. I took French in high school and some at the 2000 level in college, but haven't spoken it in about a year and I'm very out of practice. Are your studios conducted completely in French? Do you take french courses at the same time? I would greatly appreciate your opinion!!
Thanks!
Becca (I'm using my friend's google account right now and her name is sarah, just to avoid confusion)