France evokes scenes of the Eiffel Tower, fashion, romance, history, and but of course bread, wine and cheese. For all these reasons and more I decided to take the leap of faith required to study abroad at a small city university called the Universite de Caen Basse-Normandie. Located very close to the English Channel and World War II D-Day beaches, Caen is both the capital and center of the Lower Normandy region of France. I knew hardly anything about Caen before leaving, besides what the obligatory search on Wikipedia had to offer.
This study abroad experience was not my first foray into the beauty that is France. I had taken a two week trip in high school to Paris and the Eastern side of the country, and it was what I consider a love affair from then on. That experience is exactly the experience that I accredit for instilling a passion for travel and Europe into my blood. I fell in love instantly and became a tourism major upon entering college, a rather quick and easy decision. I also always knew that I wanted to study abroad, but where to study abroad, I was not entirely sure. With a gentle suggestion by an encouraging professor I went to France, to an all speaking French school, as in no English. Mind you, I had a three year high school French background, but non-the-less everyone, myself included, thought that I was slightly crazy to take on such a huge endeavor. And so I went.
The initial arrival into my new home for the next four months was not an easy one. I could not speak the French required for essential paperwork and orientation, I had no initial way to reach my family, and my single bed dorm room had no internet or TV connection. The culture shock was immediate and severe in my case. Once classes started up a couple days after arrival things got slightly better because of the help of terrific French professors and a classroom full of foreign exchange students from all over, all of whom were in the same position as this lonely, terrified American. These fellow students and I developed quite a bond over our four month stay with each other and I am proud to call Rita from Panama, Xavier from Ecuador, Zhou Shou from China, Mariko from Japan and many others as friends.
Nothing has made me learn more about myself in such a short period of time as studying abroad completely out of my element as I was. It forces you, and nothing less, to quickly learn what you are capable of doing and adapting becomes a second nature you hardly notice. The experience was priceless, not only for what I learned academically, but for what I took away personally. During our two week spring break I backpacked through Europe visiting Italy, Germany, and Belgium. The cultural awareness has been so very worth it as well the understanding of what I am fully capable of. What started as such an intense shock turned into a priceless, once in a lifetime, lesson on what I am able to accomplish when I want something so very bad, and I am already itching to get back to France immediately, if for nothing else than a fresh baguette and sparkling glass of wine.
For more information on France please feel free to visit: http://www.us.franceguide.com
I am very jealous of your experience in France. I had the opportunity to travel to France, which I extremely regret not doing. I also took three years of French in high school and wasn't very good at it at all. Instead of taking the chance and just going over there, I backed out. This was due to the anticipation of certain things that happened to you. No English speaking people to help you, and the overall cultural shock from being in a totally different environment. I didn't think that I would be able to handle that at the age I was. However, now I deeply regret not going on the exchange program, and hope to visit France soon.
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