¡¡DORMS!!
So the dorms here are somewhat awesome. All single studio apartments, one-room with kitchenette and attached bathroom, pretty spacious, in these really cool buildings that are kind of Blade Runner meets nautical.
Dorms at night:
These really cool super secret magic walkways are reserved either for emergency use (according to one sheet of paper taped to one door), cigarette/KFC breaks (according to the pile of cigarette butts and chicken bones on a ledge near another door), or getting from one building to another without going all the way down to the common ground level (according to common sense). Whatever their official designation, they’re neat. You get a nice view of the highway outside, and you can appreciate the curtain wall and supports and all that stuff.
These light shafts are a lot cooler in theory than in practice. They just don’t let in that much light.
My door! It’s heavy and armor-plated and has three different lock settings that were a pain to figure out.
My hallway!
My kitchenette!
My room!
While the aesthetic is very nice, the buildings don’t score major points for emergency preparedness. Each building has 13 apartments on each floor, with something like 5 or 6 residential floors, lower ones used for office-type stuff. Each building also has only one staircase, which is wide enough to fit two people but spirals so it’s really just a one-lane deal, especially in an evacuation type of situation. Yes, there are the magic passageways in the back, but only on the even-numbered floors. Is an evacuation likely? No, not besides our mandatory-per-trimester fire drill. But still, it doesn’t make one feel exactly safe.
Stairs of Doom Going Up:
Stairs of Doom Going Down:
Also, the lighting in the halls has a frankly idiotic energy-saving mechanism whereby they are only lit by pressing buttons. There are about a half-dozen of these scattered around each hall. I’m all for saving energy, but seriously, that’s what they invented motion sensors for. Remember what I said about those light shafts not working too well? Yeah. I don’t think this is a big security concern, since the buildings have only one access point and you need an RFID key fob to get in, and there’s a guard/reception desk. I doubt I’m going to get mugged on my way to the light switch. I’m more concerned about people leaving things lying around, stuff spilling, whatever. Would it really hurt to put the lights on motion sensors? I don’t think so. The ones down in the main hall are. They work fine.
This place, as mentioned above, is pretty high-security. Access is more limited than at the Hunter dorms on a physical level (see above re RFID badge and armored door), but students are much more autonomous. No RAs, and a much simpler visitation policy. You even have to fill in for yourself the sheet about the condition of the room when you arrive.
Having had a prior bad experience at the Hunter dorms, where my checking-in and checking-out RAs had entirely different interpretations of the words “Good condition,” which almost led to my being billed for damage caused by the previous occupant, I was quite thorough in filling out my sheet. I had a lot of fun sitting down with my Oxford Hachette French/English Dictionary and learning words like abîmé (damaged), éraflé (scratched), fissure (crack, as in a wall), fêlure (crack, as in my sink), and branlant (loose, as in my towel holder). I also got to practice useful phrases like “Pas de rideau” (no shower curtain), “Pas de fauteuil” (no armchair), “Pas d’ampoule” (no light bulb), “Beaucoups de taches, rèsidu d’adhésif” (lots of stains, adhesive residue), “Bonne condition, avec un aimant en forme de grenouille” (good condition, with a magnet in the shape of a frog), and “Le sommier manque une vis” (the mattress base is missing a screw).
In other news, I’ve been getting better at doing the sorts of things here that I did back in New York; yesterday, I had an awkward conversation in a check-out line at the supermarket with an old man who asked me how tall I was.
The photo below demonstrates two things that New York and Paris have in common. First, both cities seem to have people riding their subways who want to learn English; second, both share a similar opinion of Wall Street’s recent performance.
