It's been two years since I studied abroad in France. I was only there for two months (which is short in study abroad terms), but it felt almost too long for me. I got pretty homesick and I felt stressed because of the school work and the culture shock and being away from close friends and family. Yet, now that I look back on it, I miss it. I miss the country, the culture, the language, and the experience. I remember some of the little things. I remember going to the Marché Plus everyday for lunch, buying a fresh baguette, some Laughing Cow cheese (La Vache Qui Rit), and maybe some ham (jambon) and/or a fresh peach (une pêche) or other piece of fruit, and always a huge liter-sized water bottle (which was only around 60 Euro cents, which was about $1 US).
I also remember going downstairs every evening at 8 for dinner with my host family. My host mother cooked an amazing meal for us every night, usually with a salad (lettuce, sometimes with tomato, dressed in a light vinagrette), always with slices of baguette, and dessert. In June we often had fresh strawberries for dessert, small, red, and juicy sweet, sprinkled with a little sugar and served with some kind of creamy cheese. The table was always set the same, with the napkin (with a beautiful red flower on it, I kept one for my memory box) on the plate, and water in the same pitcher, with the same water glasses. We rarely ate inside (usually only on rainy days), and we usually ate on the patio that was just behind the kitchen and opened onto a lovely garden (le jardin). When we had steak (a few times) we would always have it with small glasses of red wine. There wasn't much that I didn't like - once we had salmon that wasn't fully cooked (intentionally, I thought, since just the outside was cooked and the inside was still pink), and chicken cooked in a Dijon mustard sauce (I don't like Dijon mustard, but that's usually the only kind in France). I remember my host mother (Madame) telling us she made sausage with pasta for dinner, and when she lifted the lid to the pot, there were what looked like hot dogs sitting on a bed of noodles (it was delicious). One of my favorite meals was when we had ratatouille, served as a side dish for rabbit. It was really good, and Madame said that ratatouille is perfect with rabbit. I don't remember what we had for dinner on my birthday, but I do remember the gateau (cake), it was a light meringue with sparkler candles on it, and we had it with champagne. They also gave me a beautiful book of the chateaux of the Loire Valley (which was the region where I was staying).
The first week that I was there, it rained. A lot. I was there with about 30 or so MSU students, and many of them had to buy umbrellas on the first day. With our professor and her assistant, we all trekked from where we had met at the school (L'institut de Tourraine) to the main shopping street to buy umbrellas and then go across the street to Le Fnac to get cell phones or SIM cards. I had to buy a phone since my service didn't use SIM cards (that would've been too easy), and I remember us all sitting and standing around the cell phone area, getting our professor and the people working there to help us put the minutes on our phones, since the automatic prompt was too fast for most of us to understand.
Even though I wasn't very close to any of the MSU students going on the study abroad program (I had only met a few of them prior to leaving, but I did plan a trip for our one week vacation with one girl), we all bonded over the experience while we were there, and I grew close to a small group of 3 other people who I had more in common with (people who had Christian beliefs and people who didn't want to go out to bars as often as most of the others). The four of us ended up exploring Tours together, choosing many of the same excursions, and hanging out together almost every day. We even made a friend towards the end of the eight weeks who was from Minnesota, who was only going to be studying at the school for a couple of weeks, was a Christian with similar beliefs, and somehow had known someone from my small hometown in Michigan!
Although I was excited and relieved once I got home (and the first thing I realized were how huge the cars are here), I knew that study abroad would not be my last international experience. I knew that I wanted to return to France, one day, probably just as a tourist. This experience on study abroad, however, opened my eyes - and my mind - to the possibility of new international opportunities. It is why I'm planning on going back to Europe to backpack with my friends, take my sister on a cruise, and show my mother what I loved about it when I was there. These are only three of the endless possibilities for trips to Europe and around the world.
If you want to read some of my impressions from when I was in France, check out my study abroad blog: My World Travels.
No comments:
Post a Comment