So I am currently participating in the Welcome Programme at Sciences Po. During the day, we have ‘methodology’ classes in which we learn the French way of writing essays and doing presentations. It is interesting to learn a new style but slightly odd to be told that a proper introduction requires 3 paragraphs!

This evening, we went to Bar Les Pères Populaires in Buzenval (20^th district) of Paris. It is the first bar we went to out of the 4-day ‘A Bar A Day’ scheme organized by Bureau des Eleves of the university. After changing twice on the metro, we arrived at a quirky local bar that was experiencing a placid and calm evening – what you would expect on a Monday night. Suddenly, around a hundred of us exchange students swarmed into the place.

There were so many of us, we had to stand out on to the…