So I see this poster hanging up: Week-end d'Integration. Everone here calls it WEI (rhymes with hawaii). I thought it would be a nice opportunity to do nice stuff and meet new people.
It taught me something about french culture.
This is what I figured out: We'd be going to a place near Toulon, a camp site like thing with caravan-bungalows and there'd be loads of activities. Everyone from the EGIM was invited, about 200-300 students were expected. Well, that was the official description. The real one is a bit different:
First of all, the main objective of the WEI is to drink as much as possible. Drinks are included in the fee, so you can just get wasted. I just didn't realise how crazy my fellow students could actually be.
It all started on the bus. There was loads of alcohol and french chants (of which I didn't understand anything) and I felt like I was on the wrong bus. Everyone just got a lot louder once we got there, and the main group (who had the left in the morning and had been there all day) already had shrunken by 3 or 4 people who'd had too much to drink. No worries - the Croix Rouge had patrols all the time for us and kept carrying people away. The medics and the camp site staff seemed used to this kind of trip, so consider that normal.
Having food was not what I expected, either. I enjoy a nice meal without lots of racket and a little chat with the rest sitting at my table. I recorded 90 secs of dinner for you, but I didn't get any really wild bits (e.g. when some of the students got naked and jumped around on the table). This video was taken during the main course, it got a lot louder when noone had anything to eat. Imagine sitting in a football stadium, that gets close to the noise level.
The days were quite relaxing, I talked to loads of people, played Petanque and the French version of Mafia, called Loup-Garou (a word I'd learned reading Harry Potter in French). The BDE (bureau des élèves), who had organised everything, had really done lots of work and had organised a foam party, we had a disco for ourselves every night, loads of games...
By the way, being German can be an advantage, because you can sing along to Rammstein songs without an accent, which is considered quite cool by some.
What did I learn?
French students like to party really hard, they don't miss an opportunity to get naked, most activities are organised mainly for the official programme and I also learned a couple of French words I don't want to repeat here.
And I never enjoyed a peaceful meal as much as I did after the WEI.
So if you ever get the opportunity... don't miss it out!
