Le CRIT 2009
So this past weekend, I went to Lyon for a sporting competition for all of les Institut d’Etudes Politiques. There are nine of them (I’m attending in Paris). I was expecting an awesome time, but I would have never expected to have the experience that unfolded before me this past weekend.
Going into the weekend, I had very little knowledge about what to expect. I had been told that it’s a great competition, and a lot of fun, but that was an understatement. The best description that I can give is that it was a mix of the stereotypical American Spring Break in Cancun with the stereotypical English soccer hooliganism. I also knew that the competition wasn’t so much every school against one another, but instead, every school against Paris. Sciences-Po Paris is known for being arrogant, prestigious, and snotty. We call all the students of all the other schools provinciaux (“provincials” in English) and basically act better than them. However, I soon learned the extent of this. (For example, during a volleyball game, the Paris girls team was winning substansially so the girls on the bench turned their backs to the game and watched the other game - hilarious and in poor taste at the same time).
The night started on Thursday night. We gathered near school at 11h30 and left Paris at about 2h00 in the morning of Friday (two hours late). Everyone arrived to the buses decked out in black and yellow (our school colors), and a lot of people were drunk. After a very long bus-ride, we arrived in Lyon at 8h00. Right away, students from other schools flocked to our buses and we were met with flares, nudity, beer being sprayed everywhere, and complete contempt. As more schools arrived, more antics unfolded - people tearing down everyone’s signs, people climbing buildings, people yelling and screaming in your face. It was unlike anything that I could have expected. I competed in the canoing event at 11h30 (an hour and a half late) with three other people. People crowded around us and trying to tip our canoes and it was basically a mess. However, Paris prevailed and we came in second place!
(NOTE: The following paragraph contains obscene language. Just letting you know, Mom.)
The rest of the day was spent watching sporting events, trying to avoid drunken antics, and screaming at other teams. We had a lot of different cheers, all of which were awesome in that they were creative, but terrible in that they were vulgar. For example, we had one cheer for the people from Lille that went, “Lillois, Lillois, don’t be proud, Lillois, Lillois, we pissed in your beer.” (Note: these all rhyme in French. Also, I realize that this is pretty terrible, but at the same time, I want to capture the hilarity and vulgarity of the cheers.) One school, Aix-en-Provence, had a cheer that went “Aix, Aix, Aix, sex, sex, sex, we bent you over and raped you in your ass.” Our response to that was, “Aix, Aix, Aix, sex, sex, sex, you placed it there, but we felt nothing.” A common cheer against Paris was something like “We are raping you,” to which our response was, “We have AIDS.” However, some of our cheers were a little more elevated. One went “Paris, Paris, actionnary, Province, Province, secretary.” One sign said Fils d’Arcueil which means “Sons of Arcueil.” Arcueil is the entrance exam for Paris that is not required for entry to the other schools. It was hilarious.
On Friday night, we went into the city to go to bars. To see the look on people’s faces when about four thousand savages are approaching is hilarious. In the metro, we would take up entire metro stops. People would climb over gates, jam open doors, climb the architecture, and basically create havoc for everyone around. In one of the squares of Lyon, people were screaming and lighting flares after midnight, banging on things and playing drums. Every night was just mass chaos. Saturday was very much the same thing, except we went to a club about an hour away. This made absolutely no sense, considering that we spent two hours traveling in sum, and only an hour and a half at the place. Even still, it was a lot of fun. (Also, we lost an hour of sleep this night due to Daylight Savings Time.)
Sunday was finally the day for me - the day of the swimming competition. Going into the competition, I was really nervous. I get extremely anxious for any competition and I think I had just overthought what would happen by making high expectations for myself and being afraid of not getting them. I swam three events out of five - 50 fly, 50 back, and the 4x50 coed free relay. I have no idea what places I got, however, I know that we won the relay. We also ended up winning the whole swimming competition.
Sunday night was the closing ceremonies. We got to the arena and watched all of the pom pom teams from each of the nine schools. Suffice it to say that they are, well, not good at all (except for Paris, of course). It was a fine effort, however, I think I’m used to seeing American dancers and cheerleaders. The dances were really long, with some being fourteen minutes long, and usually involved some sort of removal of clothing. In advance, I knew it was a bit of a strip show, and I wasn’t let down. There were also “chariot races,” which were somewhat entertaining, albeit dangerous. (Tip: running in circles with a shopping cart is a recipe for disaster.) We then had a sort of dance party, followed by awards. Unfortunately, there was no alcohol being sold at the event. The swimmers had pretty much given up drinking for the weekend, in saving up for after the competition and for Sunday night, but when we got there, there was nothing. A friend and I, however, found a stray bottle of Pastis and traded pulls, which was enough to assuage my thirst. Then, we had the awards ceremony. I think the points between first and second were kind of close, but Paris ended up winning! It was huge for us, since again, it’s basically every school against Paris. We act arrogant, and it’s great to know that we can back it up. Followed by this was more dancing and then finally, at 2h00 in the morning, we headed home. We arrived in Paris at about 8h00.
This morning I skipped my 8h00 class so that I could sleep instead. I got home and took a shower. I was so tired that I actually fell out of the bathtub and got water everywhere. I also really hurt my leg and it kind of hurts to walk. Of course, I’m blaming this on the weekend’s activities.
Overall, this weekend was an absolutely amazing experience. It was unlike any sort of experience that I’ve had before, and there’s nothing that I can think of for comparison. It was full of mayhem, drunkenness, comaraderie, antics, and nudity. Even still, I don’t think I’ve at all done this weekend any justice. All I can say is that the French are crazy - if anyone tells you otherwise, well, they’re wrong.
(Pictures to be posted at a later date.)
