I’ve been in France for about 2 weeks now, and many things have happened. Upon arrival, I was notified of very many rules that make life a little different. For one, I am not allowed to shower more than once a day, for more than five minutes. I am not allowed to flush the toilet after 10 o’clock. All my shoes have to remain in the freezing cold basement no matter what. I can’t have personal food items anywhere in the house. Dinner is at 7 o’clock sharp and it involves at least 3 courses. The list actually goes on. At first, I was shocked at the stress involved in daily life, but as I went on, things became almost second nature. It is important to note the difference between daily life in France and daily life in the United States: the French do not seem very concerned about “convenience” like Americans are, they are more attached to rules and traditions and etiquette. Things that I worried about before like language seem to be less of a stressor than I would have thought. I am usually around people who speak French and English, so I’m never completely lost. However, even on days that I went out alone, I was completely able to get around with the amount of French that I know. The French class that I am taking is a dual level class so that I start at the basic level and jump to a very difficult level at the end. I prefer that expedited kind of learning so that I can improve much faster than I would otherwise. The program I am in offers very many opportunities to travel, so upon arrival, we went to a coastal city named La Ciotat and another named Cassis. The following weekend, we went on a skiing trip to a place called Vars. This past weekend, we were able to take a trip with the tour guide affiliated with IAU- George. We went to Monaco and a nearby perfume factory called Fragonard. Other trips are planned for the coming weekends, like for Valentine’s day, my friends and I are going to Paris and some of my classes are taking trips to Marseille and Brussels. In other words, things are very exciting! My classes are spectacular, the professors at IAU are very intelligent and the teaching style is very similar to that of Rollins. My European Union class is going to Brussels so that we can learn first hand at the EU headquarters, I think that that kind of learning is the most valuable and will have the biggest impact on me.
