My first week at the University of Paris Diderot was quite disheartening. All week, I was coming home stressed and critical of the college's complete lack of organization. I didn't want to socialize with other students, I didn't have time to lunch and my biggest accomplishment during the week was to have been able to find all of my classes on time. I'm serious.
The Universities of Pairs Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Nanterre and Saint-Denis all have architectural flaws. Paris 8, for example, is constructed with huge glass walls and ceiling, almost like a Greenhouse, which let in so much light into a building that has no circulating air to begin with that we were forced to open the windows in February to get a little air. But I never could have imagined that simple design flaws could be the root of so much stress.
Paris 7 is literally a labyrinth of stairs that lead nowhere but to concrete walls, where floor numbers change depending on where you are in the building (sometimes it's 1, 2, 3, 3, 4; sometimes it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 6. Both in the same building! ...and I was trying to find floor 5!), where it seemed fine to the architect that one should divide a single building that serves one purpose into three incommunicable sections with randomly assigned room numbers. The cafeteria meant to serve 25 thousand students is large enough for maybe 200 max, while one can clearly see that the gardens serve only an aesthetic purpose and do not even provide outside seating.
Other than that, I think I will seriously enjoy my classes. My instructors all seemed serious and the course contents seemed exactly what I wanted... with perhaps a bit more translation work than I was hoping for, but at least my technical writing class is taught be an actual professional technical writer!
...I just hope that Lycée Michelet will not be inflexible with the hours that they're proposed.
The Universities of Pairs Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Nanterre and Saint-Denis all have architectural flaws. Paris 8, for example, is constructed with huge glass walls and ceiling, almost like a Greenhouse, which let in so much light into a building that has no circulating air to begin with that we were forced to open the windows in February to get a little air. But I never could have imagined that simple design flaws could be the root of so much stress.
Paris 7 is literally a labyrinth of stairs that lead nowhere but to concrete walls, where floor numbers change depending on where you are in the building (sometimes it's 1, 2, 3, 3, 4; sometimes it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 6. Both in the same building! ...and I was trying to find floor 5!), where it seemed fine to the architect that one should divide a single building that serves one purpose into three incommunicable sections with randomly assigned room numbers. The cafeteria meant to serve 25 thousand students is large enough for maybe 200 max, while one can clearly see that the gardens serve only an aesthetic purpose and do not even provide outside seating.
Other than that, I think I will seriously enjoy my classes. My instructors all seemed serious and the course contents seemed exactly what I wanted... with perhaps a bit more translation work than I was hoping for, but at least my technical writing class is taught be an actual professional technical writer!
...I just hope that Lycée Michelet will not be inflexible with the hours that they're proposed.
