1. What are some of the student organization offered? Are they cultural, political, community service, or just fun oriented?
2. What kind of sports teams can you join, and is there anything like the Intramural program at UM?
3. Are there any student dance groups? Do people just go to clubs to dance?
4. Are there any festivals of music and art?
5. What do you have to say about performances like music or plays?
6. Can one see any museums or art galleries in Aix?
3 comments:
Alright, I'll give this a shot, but I'm about the least athletic person you're ever going to meet, so I might not give a complete answer.
1) There are classes such as stretching, football, etc that you can take. At the beginning of the year, there's a fair on the Cours Mirabeau where all the organizations show up - everything from skiing and mountain biking to voluteering with AIDS groups. So I'm going to say "all of the above" - basically, if there's something you want to do, you'll most likely find it here.
I will throw in that tennis is a bit hard to do, and only because it's a bit on the pricey side. Like 300 euro for a year membership at some places. And there aren't any free courts.
2) I think you can join whatever sport you want. You have to get a physical before you can join, and then you go to the sports office at the university to get a card/sign up for something. There's a guy on the volleyball team right now, and we've got a friend from first semester who joined a basketball team outside of school.
3) I think no. There are dance classes, where they'll teach you salsa and ballroom dancing, but they're not related to the school. Clubs are the same as the ones in the states - the drinks are over-priced, and people go to dance, to pick up people, to watch, to drink at the bar, etc. The watching is the creepiest - you'll get guys (and usually older ones) who get there early to get a good spot, and then they'll just watch girls all night.
If you want to go to talk, I'd suggest going to a bar (my personal favorite is sextius when it's not too busy, it's the only place in Aix where you can get a White Russian) and getting a drink beforehand. They usually play music, too.
4) There's a BD festival coming up in a bit, and I'm pretty sure we've got another music festival coming up. And there are always people playing music in the streets. I've seen what I think was a concert at the end of the cours mirabeau, and I've seen guys doing tricks on bikes.
5) I haven't seen any concerts here, so I don't know about the music scene, so much. You see like 4 plays with the program, and to be honest, I wasn't impressed. They're usually much lesser-known, and by companies with approximately 6 actors. That's not to say that they were horrible for everyone, I just personally wasn't very impressed.
6) Yes. Several. And they're usually free or really cheap for students. There's a thing in the beginning of the year called patrimoine days or something, and there are several things that are normally closed that are open to the public on that day. I stood on the roof of a church that day - great view.
Just a short note - if you're interested in tennis, you can get free access to the courts by being a volunteer. The Bureau will ask you at the beginning of the year if you'd like to volunteer (after-school help, going to retirement homes, teaching English, etc.) - if you find a volunteer program that is nationally registered, you receive free access to the courts, a Cinetoile card (gives you discounts on movies in all of the theatres in Aix), and you get a certain number of photocopies free.
I really don't know about 1-2, so...
3) I don't know about dance groups, but people definitely dance in bars and clubs. One club that I unfortunately never got to go to is called studio 88, open from 12am to 6am (on weekends only I think). They get really renowned electronic and techno dj's to play there. There's a bus that goes there from the Rotunde starting at midnight. Apparently is was voted France's #1 night club last year.
4) At the beginning of the year, a ton of organizations set up on the cours mirabeau where you can find information about them. It's pretty much the same thing as festifall.
-Ask madame feral about the 'vide grenier', the biggest garage sale ever, and it's once a year only. No garage sales in France, except for this one event, so everyone comes out with all their ancient goodies for cheap. Buy yourself something cool.
-There's an opera festival in August, or over the summer at least. A comic book festival in March "festival du IXième art". Fete de la musique for summer soltice (everywhere in France). Marsatac is a music festival in Marseille. You'll have to google it for their dates.
5) Go to the plays the program will take you on. The fac has a theatre company called theatre vitez, and they put on decent stuff. They just got a new organ at the chuch "jean de la baptiste" or something like that. it's by the musée granet, so i'd check that out - sometimes they do free concerts.
6) Check out musée granet, it's got some old stuff and cézanne, and some other good stuff. They also have that big Ingres painting of Zeus and venus which is huge, and impressive. Last year the digital art program at the ecole des beaux arts put up a festival called arborescence in many locations. They had some really unique stuff (for instance, this inflated dome with a projector in the middle. you put on a helmet type thing and move your head around anymore, and the projector shines only where you are looking to uncover whatever image and sounds correspond to that location... pretty clever). I would look out for this.
pavillon noir, beaux arts
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