The word "Inter" means that it’s between the different ENSs (or between departments within a single ENS) while "Q" stands for culturel (cultural). Each spring, one of the universities hosts students of the other universities to their campus and organizes a number of cultural and musical events. ENS Lyon was the host for this year’s InterQ, so off to Lyon I went!
After disembarking from the train late Friday night at Lyon Part-Dieu (the name of the train station) and hopping the metro line over to the campus with some of my classmates, we were quickly shuffled over to grab a bite to eat and then to our rooms to prepare for the long two days ahead.
ENS Lyon has two campuses: the Descartes campus and the Monod campus. Saturday morning, I left for a tour of the two campuses with le club absurde (“the ridiculous club”). The spirit of the club absurde is to “do normal things absurdly.” For example, the tour guide, who also helps run the club, told us about one event where club members independently created slides on random topics, only for another club member with no knowledge of the presentation to give a talk in front of an audience using the slides. This time, in addition to giving a real tour of the campus, the guide pointed out different facts about the pigeons around the campus. Topics included where the pigeons nested and how they entered the building all the way to how they eat and reproduce. Absurd!
After the tour, a number of musical events and concerts were organized that day, including a performance by ENS Rennes’s orchestra and choir, a welcoming event by the bands of each ENS (known as la fanfare), a rock concert, and much more!
