Name: Kit Harris
Year: Class of 2011
Hometown: Andover, MA
Major: International Studies
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To get to class every day I have to take a 30 minute bus ride. That might sound pretty terrible to you… except I forgot to tell you that I live in PARIS! So, my bus ride isn’t just any bus ride. I get to drive down the Champs-Elysees, cross the Seine, see the Eiffel Tower in the distance and catch a glimpse of the spire of Notre Dame. All on my way to class. No biggie.
I live in the 17ème arondissment of Paris with a host family, so I’m a little bit farther out of the city center, hence the bus ride. [The arondissments in Paris are numbered in a spiral, like a snail’s shell beginning with 1er arondissment in the area of the Louvre. So, the arondissments with higher numbers are on the exterior of the city.] I also have a Metro stop within a 10 minute walk of my apartment, but I choose to take the bus, when I have the time and it’s not rush-hour, because in the beginning it helped me get a sense of where I was in the city and how to get between places. It’s a great way to learn street names and to spot monuments or parks or museums that you want to come back to explore later!
So, that’s all just my ride to class. Class itself is at the Sorbonne, also known as Paris IV. The program I chose to go abroad with, Academic Programs Abroad, is a direct enrollment program. That means that of my five courses this semester; three of them are actually at a French university. I am taking two classes at Paris IV in History of Art and one at Paris II in Political Science. What’s great about the direct enrollment system that APA has perfected over the past 30 years is that we are at the same time treated completely like every French student, but also aided with the particularities that could possibly make our educational experience complicated.
The educational system is completely different here, because everyone who goes to university has to pick their specialty upon exiting lycée or high school. So, by the time they get to the third year of license or undergraduate, they are pretty darn good at their specialty. That makes it very difficult for American students to try to jump into the system and catch up with the French students. But, APA helps to teach us the methodology and processes for writing papers, taking tests, giving oral exposés (!! This is the scariest part of all!)
I managed to organize my classes so that I don’t have class on Fridays, which is great for hoping around Europe on weekend trips which you can read more about on my personal blog: www.kitintothegreatwideopen.blogspot.com and I also don’t have class until 2 on most weekdays. I try to do one thing, sometimes I manage to get two done, on those mornings. For example, last week I went to the Cimitaire de Père Lachaise to see the graves of Jim Morrison, Simone de Beauvoir, and Camille Pissaro on Tuesday and on Wednesday I went to the (free!) Musée de L’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris to see their excellent permanent collection of art of the 2nd half of the 20th century and a great special exhibition they’re presenting called “Deadline” and on Thursday I relaxed in the Jardin de Luxembourg, a beautiful park in the center of the Rive Gauche.
Gardens and churches have become two of my “hang-outs” in Paris. Oh, and MacDo also. (That’s MacDonald’s!) Another crucial difference between the universities here and in the US, is that there aren’t campuses. There’s a few academic buildings scattered around in the same general area and there’s a library. But, the libraries are mostly for research and there aren’t any student lounges or places to jut chill. So, I’ve taken to spending time in gardens when it’s nice out and churches when it’s drizzly, as it often is in autumn in Paris. MacDo here is so much better than in the US. It’s classy here… with really great contemporary design and free WiFi. You can hang out there for as long as you want too. In the Latin Quarter and around the Jardin de Luxembourg there are so many universities and schools, that the MacDo is always packed with students sipping lattés and eating Le M, the “gourmet” MacDo sandwich.
So, that’s just a little taste of what I’m doing over here in Paris. It’s amazing to be able to get away and take the time to get to know another country, another part of the world. My French skills have been rapidly getting better since the minute I stepped off the plane. I can’t say that I’m anywhere near being fluent… but I’m definitely learning faster than I ever have in a classroom. It’s extremely rewarding (and fun too!)
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