In the spring of 2022, I took part in the French 232 program in Aix-en-Provence, France. The program’s main focus was our French course, but we also had the opportunity to learn about French culture through an IAU course, which was the university where we took our classes.
While the program was only 5 weeks long, I look back on that experience as if I were there for a year and I now have memories from that program that will last me a lifetime. I was skeptical of going on the trip because I had never been out of the country for that long and I didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life.
One of the biggest things I gained from my time on this CGIS program was the community that we built as a class and as a group of friends. We all embarked on the same journey with little to no idea of how it was going to go. The majority of students on the trip did not know anyone else, but it never felt like we were strangers. The amount of time I spent with my peers each day, both in and out of the classroom, was an essential part of my experience. It made it so that even during the moments where I felt homesick, I never felt alone. The program was challenging, and the course work required a lot of dedication; but being while sitting in an outdoor cafe with my new friends, all learning and figuring out those challenges together, the work never felt like work. Being surrounded by people with the same goal and the same desire to learn made practicing a new language fun because rather than simply studying for a test, we were able to speak with each other and locals in French and to practice what we learned in the classroom.
Along with the friends we made inside the classroom, we were also able to meet many locals in the area and formed a strong relationship with a group of students in Aix who were all around our ages. These new friends were beyond welcoming and were so eager to show us around their home and share their experience with us. It was amazing to learn directly about their culture and to share our culture with them. Aix has a large community of university students which made the city feel even more homey. We never felt like we stood out because we were always surrounded by people with whom we had many things in common.
While I enjoyed all the new friends we made, the connections I formed with my peers in the program were beyond any I could have hoped for. Those friends will always hold a special place in my heart because of what we experienced together. We were able to see the world from a new perspective and experience something together that not many other people are lucky enough to experience. While we were all different grade levels, ages, majors, and are likely going in widely different directions in life, we will always be bonded through this program, and I will forever be grateful to have been on that journey with them.
