The schools which I attend is called ENSAV, which stands for école nationale superieure d' architetchure francaise. In English this means that the schools is a national french institute of architecture. The school itself is situated in the heart of Versailles , in the Stable building of the World Famous Chateau.
The architecture school is made up primarily of French students, but the University of Illinois students have their classes taught by instructors affiliated with the University of Illinois. Therefore we make up a sort of school within a school. We share studio space with French students and we frequently see them around in the student lounge and the studios.
The hardest part of Living in versailles is the difficulty of making new friends. There are 48 students from the University of Illinois, most of who had already made their groups of friends before signing up for the trip. For rather abstract reasons I have difficulty connecting with most of the UIUC Furthermore, I live in Buc, which is too far to easily walk to and From Versailles where most of the other students live. I did talk to a really friendly guy named Alex.
It turns out the Brian is considered a very american name. In books where kids learn English Brian is the Main Character, and they love it. So the night before last there was this HUGE party in the Studio 13. It went till about 1 AM and involved a lot of dancing and drinking. Being in France makes me realize how much we miss out as Americans have thing drinking age at 18.
Im going to try to start making more regular posts in the next couple of weeks goodbye for now.
