Yikes! So much seems to have happened in the nearly two weeks that I have in Paris! I apologize that I didn’t update earlier, but now that I am at my host family’s house I finally have a decent internet connection. Below are some thoughts/reflections on my first week :
Reflecting upon my first week, the emotions I experienced the night before and the day that I left the United States still can be recalled very vividly. An intense mixture of anxiety and curiosity for unknowns to come, I was excited for sure, but also sad knowing I would be leaving friends, family and familiarities that I love (and not to mention the English language) behind. After I was accepted to the Paris study-abroad program at Elon, it didn’t really “sink in” per se that I was actually going to Paris. I was certainly looking forward to my spring semester, but I also remember it being hard to be super excited about an experience that I truly knew nothing about. Even when I went to the (intimidating) French consulate in Boston for my visa, or when I started packing or even when my dad dropped me off at the airport that Saturday afternoon (January 31)- I don’t think I had realized all that was in store. To be honest, the whole revelation of “oh my gosh I am going/I am in Paris” didn’t really happen when I landed or when I met my study abroad group at the hostel, or even when we went out to eat lunch at a Parisian pizza café. Maybe its cliché, or maybe it’s because the Eiffel Tower is possibly the most recognized Parisian or even French monument, but the moment that I finally realized that all that packing, paper work, and planning I had done to get here-finally- seemed to come to fruition when I found myself gazing up and admiring the grandeur of the Eiffel Tower my very first night in Paris. I was instantly brought back to the very first night that my dad and I were in Paris (during my first-ever trip to Europe when I was 15) and when we had gone to the Eiffel Tower-on both occasions I had almost wished I wasn’t as impressed with it as I was (as not all the French share the same level of admiration for the Eiffel tower than the many tourists that come every year to see it, and I didn’t want to be put in that stereotyped category).
Even during our orientation week when I met the other students (a few each from UNCW, UNC-CH, ECU, Marist, UC-Santa Barbara and Elon) we all agreed that we felt like we were on a school trip or at some sort of camp-not that we were going to be studying and living here for four months. Our week was full of guided history tours, grammar review for the French language and oral placement exam at the Sorbonne (even more intimidating than the consulate).
Last Sunday I was transferred to my host family’s house. Creating a routine, starting classes and living in a house rather than the FIAP-Jean Monet (although very clean and had nice amenities-it was still a hostel) has made the idea and the actuality of this experience a little more real-but even now, I feel that I am still digesting everything-sensory observations, the language and culture, and still, the fact that I am here for an entire semester.
I am so very grateful for this opportunity to study abroad with the North Carolina Consortium Paris Program at La Sorbonne and for receiving such a generous travel grant from the Leadership Office. I look forward to reporting my experiences and travels in this journal during my semester in Paris. I am anticipating much personal growth and I know I will be learning life learn lessons that I will for sure bring back to Elon-and to my various leadership roles on campus next fall.
More to come later as I upload my journal entries, but as the French would say, “Au-revoir!” for now.
