So, it has been finished. Five months abroad are complete and I find myself back amongst the comforts of home. Now that I have all five months behind me, I am glad to have lived in Paris during the Spring semester of my junior year. Through the language barriers, my living situation, and the lack of communication from our host school, I still managed to have the experience of a lifetime.
During our time at AUP this semester, we experienced a semester of unprecedented strikes. Since many French people are dissatisfied with the current state of their political sphere, we experienced what living in Paris was like by watching over ten” manifestions” (or “strikes”) occur during our time in the city. During these strikes, we were often unable to attend school due to the closure of our metro station or the one that allowed us to connect to the line that our school was near. Due to the strikes, we learned how to communicate with professors about alternative assignments, attending course online, or making up our course during office hours (which sometimes had to be communicate in French). Despite slow communication from our host school about these strikes, we learned how to be more self-sufficient while also learning how to rely on the community around you. Without my fellow Rollins and study-abroad students, the strikes would have been way too confusing for me to understand. Through communication with my fellow students and the use of the internet, I was able to better understand the dissatisfaction of the French people and the willingness of French trash, oil, and metro workers to forgo a day’s pay in the name of a larger cause.
Although many French (and Parisian) people expressed dissatisfaction with the city and neighborhood we lived in, I believe that many French young people would have liked our neighborhood due to its cheap cost of living. While groceries and rent were a large chunk of my budget, I enjoyed being able to go out to drinks, dinner, or activities with my friends without having to pay an arm and a leg. I was able to enjoy a side of Paris I would have otherwise never visited. Even if my accommodations were not entirely functional or safe, I was able to live at a cheaper cost than I would be if I lived closer to AUP.
Living abroad had so many new challenges and so many new benefits that I feel prepared to handle almost any situations that life throws at me from here on out. Spending the semester abroad helped me better understand what it meant to be a “global citizen.” From working through a long daily commute to school to communicating in a different language to trying new food on the daily, I am excited to experience all that life has to offer upon my return to the United States. I am also excited to find other opportunities to experience life beyond US borders and will be searching harder than ever before for ways to go abroad with a purpose.