The good, the bad, and the busy from your fellow SciencesPistes.
By Syontoni Hattori-Chatterjee
Remember integration week? Do the performances and parties feel a million miles away amidst the trenches of midterms season? Here’s a reminder of times past when Le Havre weather was warm and Sciences Po life had the promise of fun.
Sweet Memories
SPE and LH Sessions’ Beach Concert and Stargazing. Photo credit: Thomas Funkleder.
Nara, 1A: “Integration week was super fun! All of the assos, along with SciencesPo made everything accessible to everyone and there were tons of activities to choose to attend. For most of the 1As it’s our first time being away from home, so I appreciate the support system our 2As and admin made available for us to help us settle down and integrate. By Saturday, the day of Appartathon, I think everyone warmed up to each other and experienced lots of “core memory” things. I’m positive everyone was able to find their people and feel comfortable being here thanks to integration week.”
BDA and LH Sessions Jam Session and Bar Night. Photo credit: Julos Dartiguenave.
Yu Xuan, 2A Year Rep: “Integration week was such a blur for me and I felt like the week passed by in a flash! I absolutely loved the vibe of the campus though, everyone was so kind, lovely, and so open to discovering new cultures during the club & cultural fair! Always so fun for me to see new faces and meet y’all cutiepies! <333”
Hard Work Behind the Scenes
Club Fair. Photo credit: Thomas Funkleder.
Humshinee, 2A and Street Dance Co-Captain and Musical Logistics Captain:
“As a club leader, thinking about integration week is the best part of the summer. As the Street Dance Captains, Morgane and I started talking in Early August about ideas and it was amazing but difficult to create new choreography. We had a video call at 10 pm Morgane’s time and 4 pm my time during which we made new choreography in 30 minutes and then at 3 am my time and 9 am Morgane’s time to finish it. The crew learned it in 2 hours and then performed it the next day.
As 2As, we were just so excited to be able to showcase to 1As, and let it be on the record that I was sick during the Club Fair, but through sickness and jetlag we all powered through. For the Musical Club, we were rehearsing starting at 9 am the day before the Club Fair. Laura landed at 8 am, then came into Le Havre at 3 pm, ate lunch and showered, and came to rehearse at 4 pm. I had so much anxiety seeing if we could pull everything together and Tuesday was running in between clubs and performances, from Shatta to Musical to Cheer. But overall, showcasing our clubs was so worth it.
On Monday, meeting everyone at the beach and singing was super fun. Big ups to LH Sessions for reaching out over the summer and seeing what people were willing to do. On Thursday, it was so fun coming back to Craft a year later. I remembered seeing our now 3As perform last year so it was cool being on the other side of it.
As a whole, as a Club Captain and Performer, my main goal and takeaway from integration week was to have fun and showcase what LH is all about and the relationships that we’ve built over the past year and will continue to build this year.”
Club Fair. Photo credit: Thomas Funkleder.
Sara, 2A and President of PROPA:
“Je dirais que c’était beaucoup de stress, énormément de stress, en fait c’était vraiment une pression que je me mettais et que je pense tous les autres membres des associations se mettaient parce qu’on veut donner aux 1A une semaine d’intégration et WEI incroyable pour qu’ils se fassent des souvenirs incroyables comme nous on a pu se faire des souvenirs aussi incroyables l’année dernière.
C’était beaucoup de pression, voir même certains mental breakdowns mais au final, quand on voit les réactions des 1A qui viennent directement nous voir et nous remercier pour ce qu’on fait et nous dire qu’ils ont adoré que ce soit la semaine d’intégration ou le WEI et juste quand on les voit et qu’ils s’amusent, franchement ça en vaut la peine.
Mais honnêtement ça me fait vraiment plaisir de voir qu’ils adorent parce que franchement moi je me rappelle que l’année dernière ma semaine d’intégration et mon WEI j’avais adoré, encore maintenant on en parle avec mes amis donc j’avais envie qu’ils aient exactement les mêmes émotions et les mêmes souvenirs que moi j’ai pu avoir l’année dernière en tant que 1A.”
Translation:
“I’d say that it was a lot of stress, an insane amount of stress, but really it was pressure that I was putting on myself and that I think all of the other association members were putting on themselves because we want to give 1As an incredible integration week and WEI so that they could make incredible memories just as we did last year.
It was a lot of pressure, even some mental breakdowns but in the end, when we see the reactions of 1As who come directly to see us and to thank us for what we’re doing and to tell us that they loved integration week or WEI and even just when we see them and they’re enjoying themselves, honestly it’s worth it.
And honestly it makes me really happy to see that they loved it because truly I remember last year that I adored my integration week and WEI, even now I talk about it with my friends, so I wanted them to have the exact same feelings and memories that I got to have last year as a 1A.”
Some of the Best Sciences Po Traditions
PROPA Appartathon. Photo credit: Fatine Mohattane.
Alex, 1A: “So I thought integration week was very entertaining since lots of different associations held various events. Almost every single one of them were fun and it was a great chance to [get to] know new people, both 1As and 2As. WEI, on the other hand, was also very fun and I could see that BDE and PROPA had put a great effort into it. The events were entertaining but the best part was definitely the 2 party nights! To be honest I think this tradition must be kept forever in SciencesPo.”
WEI. Photo credit: Enxin (Rosie) Han.
Rosie, 1A: “This was my first exposure to one of the best freshman traditions of SciencesPo – a very happy first weekend. I really enjoyed playing games with my classmates, making marshmallows, swimming, dancing, singing…etc. And I‘ve also met many people who are super interesting. We walked on the lawn together and looked up at a sky thick with stars like ice crystals, flashing and flickering, with beer… this atmosphere, it’s super super nice. I thought I will always miss my 18-year-old WEI trip, en France.”
BDA MuMA Visit. Photo credit: Thomas Funkleder.
HD and BDA Cultural Fair. Photo credit: Syontoni Hattori-Chatterjee.
Been There, Done That
Anya, 2A: “As a 2A it made me very grateful for the friends I had because I saw all of the 1As in the process of making friends and it reminded me of the good friends I have.”
Diva, 2A and somebody anonymously agreeing: “Glad I’m not a 1A. I have never been so fake as my first year integration week.”
The Most Mature and Reflective Tea You’ll Ever Read
WEI. Photo credit: Nicky Punnnahitanon.
Nikki, 1A: “Before going to WEI my friends and I asked many seniors about what exciting things we could look forward to, and many of them hinted to us that we could expect the wildest things happening like couples sprouting up everywhere, condoms littered all over the place, many people getting wasted. I think many of us were excited to see such spicy stories unravel — at least I was hahaha. (Un)fortunately, I didn’t hear of anything scandalous at all, but certainly I found something way more exciting: countless platonic relationships that quickly blossomed and strengthened, from jumping into the pool together to the screaming our lungs out at parties, from playing truth or dare on the floor of our chalets to boulangerie-hopping in centre-ville together in the rain. I know that in the next two years, whenever I get a headache from PI or feel lost along the Silk Road, I’ll definitely think back to these memories and feel this snuggly warmth in my heart.
Also, I love that the BDE provided condoms – even though I felt like almost nobody ended up using them for the right purpose hahaha (my friends and I were dissecting a female condom in our own room, fascinated to be seeing it for the first time!!) This is very new for me, something I’d never expect to see back in Singapore where I went to high school because there, abstinence is still very much at the forefront of our sex education (possibly in Thailand where I originally grew up).
Initially I was shocked – likely shaped by the environment I’d grown up in, I instinctively wondered whether this would encourage potentially risky sexual interactions, but very quickly my friends and I started having discussions about it and I was amazed to discover just how open minded people around me are towards this initiative. I realized that the condoms helped normalize safe sex and conversations about it, and as we grow up, we together can do so much in spreading this open minded attitude in our workplace and the policies we’ll help push for in society!
Another highlight of WEI for me is the food – omg it was just so ✨incroyable✨ with the charcuterie buffet and biscoff panna cotta being on top of the list for me. Simply unforgettable. Changed my life.”
I hope this recap makes you think fondly of your integration week experience at Sciences Po, the first for our dear 1As and the last for us 2As soon to be spread around the world. Now get back to studying SciencesPistes, I’m sure you have work to do.
Le Dragon Déchaîné 