Over the last week, I've been putting in long hours at my school for the two week period known as "les admissibles". This is a huge event at my school and is the moment when potential students that have passed the written examination come to take part in their oral interviews. The day consists of them arriving in the morning, watching two presentations (one BDE and one from the Administration), doing a language interview (in the language of the program they want to go to : English, Spanish, German, Italian, etc) and then a personal motivation interview in French.
The students known as "les admissibles" are nervous and uncomfortable in their new suits, and are full of questions for us as they want to give perfect responses. As "admisseurs" we are there to share our experience, keep them occupied and show them how awesome CESEM is. This is not difficult.
We start the day with our presentation. A presentation where I tell two personal stories of my experience in Reims, as do other members of my student council. Then we show them a few videos (both of which seem sentimental as we are nearing the end of our year), and we finish with a quick cheerleading routine done by our IBWE cheerleaders (utterly hilarious and awesome). It is so crazy to see how small they are as they walk by full of ideas and excitement/nervousness. I see myself in them five years back, so excited to begin Northeastern, and even more excited at the prospect of two years in France!
I'm also running the restaurant reservations, and so I have to make sure how many admissibles are going out to dinner each night, and which admisseurs are going with them. The school pays for the admisseurs to go out to dinner meaning it has been tight competition to get in for a free meal. This is totally normal with college students ;-). But is is also pretty tiring as it is non-stop conversation, and usually lasts till 11pm (dinner begins at 8:30pm).
At the end of the day, I'm so excited for the little admissibles that I meet. They are beginning their college experience, and (the lucky ones) might even be doing the CESEM program, a program that I am delighted to have taken part in. On a more selfish note, I'm really glad that the whole event is going on, because it kind of forces us all to hang out every day and soak in the last weeks together.
The reality that the end is coming is starting to hit us all. Yesterday, a friend of mine brought a flag to be signed by everyone. I sometimes feel like my whole self just starts to feel like "error, error, error when I think of CESEM ending. I'm really going to miss Reims, all my wonderful friends who are going to be scattered all over the world, and speaking and living in French.
19 days until I head off to NYC.
