Pictures from le CRIT.
So last week, I went to Lyon for the CRIT, which as I explained was pretty outrageous. Anyway, here are some pictures from the event.
This is probably around 9h30, early in the morning, and already people were drunk and feisty. Pictured here one of many confrontations of the weekend, with Sciences-Po from Lille on the left, and on the right is the original Sciences-Po from Paris. Fire seemed to be a pretty common theme for the weekend. You can also see some signs that have weathered heavy damage from the opposing sides. Also, Lille is known to be the biggest party school of the system, and they fully embrace their reputation.
This is our canoe-kayaking team. Note that it’s not canoeing, and it’s not kayaking. Don’t ask why, because I don’t have a response. The girl on the left is Carly, from Canada, and she also swam on the swim team with me. The other girl is Britney, and the guy is Léo - the lone Frenchman. Also, they didn’t tell us that we would be getting really wet, so as a precaution I took off my jeans. Sorry mom. My shoes were also water-logged for the rest of the weekend. The good news is that we came in second place! This is despite people racing after us, trying to tip us over, and basically causing problems for everyone.
This havoc is taking place in the middle of a square in Lyon around midnight. We had drumlines (called “batuka” here) going through the city, causing all sorts of noise. It was funny to see the look on some of the Lyonnais’ faces as they saw hordes of crazy college kids approaching.
That’s me holding a sign with some random guy who took apparently took his duties very seriously. The sign reads, “DANSE AVEC LES PLOUCS,” which basically means “Dance with the white trash.” The white trash, of course, is all of the students from the other schools. Another sign, as I explained in the post linked above, was “FILS D’ARCUEIL,” or “Sons of Arcueil.” Arcueil is the entrance exam for Sciences-Po Paris. The other Sciences-Po schools do not have entrance exams.
This is a girl from Lille. Her swimsuit is a red, transparent thong; a white tshirt; and a red bra that eventually fell down. She also has a beer right next to her, which you can’t see. Apparently if Sciences-Po Lille needed people to fill in for sports, they chose random drunk people to make fools of themselves. Someone on our team eventually lent this girl a proper swim suit, and she loved us so much for it that she gave us beer. And she also turned into our cheerleader: “Lille et Paris: Une heure en TGV!” (“Lille and Paris: One hour by TGV!” The TGV is a really fast train in France.)
This is the entire swim team - Team Franco-Canadia-America. We won first place! It, uh, was really interesting. The competition for the girls was not that stiff, but there were quite a few guys there that were good. I swam the 50 back and 50 fly, as well as the 4x50 mixed free relay. It goes without saying that we won that, of course.
Pictured here is a typical time-out during a sports game. Hundreds of people would rush the court/field and chant and dance. They often spilt beer, as well - sometimes on accident, but sometimes on purpose. This was, of course, to make the field slippery and basically just to be a pain in the butt.
Here is a [terrible] picture of part of the closing ceremonies. Every school has some sort of pompom dance routine. These lasted about fourteen minutes, which was about fourteen minutes too long. I had been warned in advance that the pompom show is basically just a strip show. Here is proof.
I have other pictures, of course, but these are some of the most important or interesting. It was a crazy weekend, obviously, and I only wish I could go again.
