Last Updated on June 20, 2019 by Gillian Fleshman
To start, the title is a lie. I arrived on Sunday the 26th of August but I slept all day due to jet lag, so we’re going to ignore that.
On our first day, we took our placement test and I was surprised by how hard it was. I felt like the past six years of French were for nothing because clearly, I had retained nothing. After the written test we were called in one by one to discuss how we did. I was happy to find out that the professor said I understood the content well and that I just need to work on my writing. I ended up in her class the next day.
The image of the Mediterranean Sea and palm trees is not the view from a window from a resort. It’s from my classroom. It is my only complaint about the campus, because I’m constantly fighting off staring out the big open windows and day-dreaming.
Within the first week, I’ve relearned so many things that I didn’t think I needed a review of but clearly did. After eight years of Spanish and six years of French, one would assume I know how to use the preterite and imperfect tenses but it’s one of the many things we practiced so far.
Aside from academics, the thing I look forward to the most every day is dinner. Not having dinner included forces me to go out and eat among the locals in lovely restaurants on charming windy streets. Going out with the other students at the college has been an adventure for all of us. I never thought I’d be hanging out with German law students while eating gelato but here I am.
Keep in mind, all of this has been in the first seven (real) days. I refuse to count the weeks left because I want to make every day count. The possibilities are endless and as explorer Charles Muntz famously said, “Adventure is out there!”
This post was contributed by Gillian Fleshman, who is spending her fall semester studying abroad with AIFS in Cannes, France.
