Cafeterias, libraries, and unisex restrooms…

A few smaller things have come to my notice this past week, so I thought I would share them with you. The first item, French university cafeterias, aren’t entirely new to me as they resemble what I was used to in high school (or “lycée”). Forget the American glory of all-you-can-eat helpings and large selections. That’s the bad side – but even I can’t complain considering the value of what we get in return. There is a network of university cafeterias in Lyon, all open only to university students. You line up with your tray and start by choosing one first course (typically some sort of salad), then your choice of desert or cheese, then proceed choosing which main course you would like from a selection of four or so possibilities. Add a small loaf of bread (“bun,” for the Brits), and you’ve got your three course meal, all for the sum of €2.90 (≈ $4.35). Astonishingly good value.

Something that is significantly different is the libraries. The first main difference is that they are significantly smaller. I had felt that this was the case for some time, but then last week I did some research and compared numbers. The College of Wooster, where I did my undergraduate studies, has 1,800 students and a library collection of approximately 374,000 books (excluding government resources). My current school, the Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, has 22,500 students (12.5 times as many as Wooster) but its library collection has 200,000 fewer books than Wooster! I couldn’t believe it. The result is that there is a strict limit of six books that can be borrowed at one time, for only two weeks. That’s a far cry from what I was used to at Wooster, with not limit to books borrowed, and where seniors (fourth-years) could keep their books for the entire year! Furthermore, there is no centralized interlibrary loan system (such OhioLINK or CONSORT). Libraries do lend their books, but only bilaterally, and with a minimum €4 fee – ouch. This is a big thing for me – last year I often had as many as 100 books at my carrel at once! Here, if the book I want isn’t available at my library but is available somewhere else, I have to go to that library and sign up with them. As a result I’ve been doing a lot of travelling in Lyon these days, from one library to another! I now have an account in seven different Lyon libraries. Some of these have their own “charming” specificities: one library that had a book I needed is specialized in Arab culture and affairs. There you have to have a card to even get into the library, and you can’t borrow anything. Another library I’ve had to visit is the Catholic University’s library. The Catholic University is the only non-professional private university in Lyon (6,500 students), so it’s a considerable establishment. Which is why I was surprised to realize its main library wasn’t even really a library: it was just one reading room (seating capacity of 50 students or so), and every book needed to be requested from storage. It looks like doing research here is going to be very different than in the States. I think I’ll approach it as something of an adventure: the fearless Mark Hayward bravely challenging Lyonnais libraries to surrender their hidden book treasures….

Which all brings me to the final thing I wanted to write about: all restrooms at the main campus of my university are unisex. Now, I’m used to unisex restrooms – they’re not all that rare in France, and usually it just means that the restrooms only have stalls and can be used by either gender. Generally they’re found in smaller restrooms with only a couple of stalls. Not so at Lyon 3. Here, the restrooms are lavishly unisex: these are rooms that welcome both genders, but still include urinals! You know you’re in another culture when you’re standing at a urinal knowing that behind your back there are a half-dozen women waiting to wash their hands at the sinks. I wanted to take a picture of this to show you, but I figured that even in France taking pictures in the restrooms would be regarded as sketchy.

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~ by Carnildo on November 9, 2009.