Connections

Here at Baylor, I work for the Office of Campus & Communitiy Involvement at the Center for International Education. With the arrival of awesome new exchange students last week, it became known that there were FIVE students from France! Four of those five are from l'Université de Caen. How cool is that.

I immediately introduced myself and let them know that I will be there next semester. I can't wait to hear about all of the differences between Baylor/American culture and Caen/French culture. I definitely need to work harder on trying to speak with them in French - they all speak English so well, it's hard to try to get them to speak French with me instead! Maybe this is because my American accent is horrible? Or because of my lack of knowledge of French vocabulary? Hopefully by the end of this semester, I will have improved. Listening to them speak to each other is a little overwhelming. They speak extremely quickly and, shall I say, "non-textbook." Of course. This will be good practice for me for next semester, when I will hopefully meet lots of French students and be able to keep up with the conversations.

This semester I am taking two French courses: Conversation & Composition, and Civilization. Both are taught by the same professor, and both have some of the same students in them. One of the girls in my classes is the other student who is planning on studying in Caen next semester also. It will be good to know her so that we both have a fellow Baylor Bear during our time there!

After meeting the French students, I feel that much closer to getting to Caen. It's only seven months away! Already, half of a year has gone by since I've decided that I want to study abroad. It's so exciting!