A quick note before starting: last
week my phone broke and I lost all the photos I had taken up until that point.
The only ones I still have are ones I sent to other people beforehand that they
were able to send back to me, but this is a tiny percentage of what I took.
Thus, I do not have any pictures with my honors dragon now, but I promise he is
with me and, as far as I can tell, is having a good time in France.
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| A picture of Parc du Thabor located in Rennes |
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| A picture taken in Rennes most well-known art museum, the Musée des Beaux Arts de Rennes |
Bonjour à
tous! My name is Alex Williams and I am a senior geography major with a music
minor, currently studying at the University of Rennes 2 in Rennes, France for
the fall 2019 semester. While the experience thus far has been extremely
positive, I did have my initial hesitations before and when arriving. Before
coming to Rennes, I had never been outside of North America before in my life,
nor had I ever been in a country where the primary language was not English.
Although I did know a little French from taking classes in high school and
university, it did not help ease my mind much knowing that I would be in the
midst of native speakers who would probably know I was not a native speaker the
second I opened my mouth. Nevertheless, I was also eager to be able to
experience a new country and become familiar with a culture different from my
own.
When I first arrived to Rennes 2, I
was fresh off of an 8-hour plane ride and a 2-hour train ride, and in my
exhaustion, I was unable to find the residence building in which I was to make
my home for the next 4 months. In my desperation, I worked up the courage to
ask a French student if he knew where I might be able to find the building I
was meant to be in. Right away any notion of French people being rude or snobby
(which is a stereotype I had heard of before coming) was immediately disproven
for me. Not only did the student show me on a map where my building was, but he
also offered to help carry my bags on the way there. As a first impression,
this made me feel a lot better, however once I was alone in my room I couldn’t
help but feel a little homesick already for my friends, family, and (perhaps
most importantly) bed back home.
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| In class with two of my international friends, Kaito from Japan (who is holding the camera) and Neza from Afghanistan (who is in the middle) |
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| A picture taken in Paris of the Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the background |
Regardless, I pressed onward with my
journey, and as time went by and I began to settle into life in France. At
first, even little things like ordering at a restaurant could be a bit nerve
wracking, and I’d often have French people who knew English switch to speaking
English after they quickly realized my skills were not the best. However, I was
exposed to the language and culture more, I slowly found my confidence
building, and now I am able to maintain communication in French in most any
situation I find myself in.
While being exposed to French
culture has been great and I have been able to eat bread to my heart's content,
perhaps the best thing about being here has been the people I have met. On top
of meeting native French people who have taught me some of the French way of
life, I have also met many international students as well. I have gotten to
know people from all over the world, ranging from Ghana to Japan to Italy to
Brazil and so on. Due to this, I have been able to learn about little things
about all sorts of cultures that are foreign to me, not just that of France.
With the international friends, I have made I have also been able to find people
with which to share the experience of living in a whole new country, and it has
easily been one of the best things about studying abroad.
In my time in Rennes so far, I have
been able to become familiar with many things about France, ranging from their
cuisine to the way the university system works. However, I still feel I have a
lot to experience before returning home, and I hope that in the 5 weeks I have
remaining here, I can squeeze in as much as I can. Regardless, this experience
has already solidified itself as being one of the most memorable in my life,
and I am eager to see what the last stretch has in store.
Au revoir!
