Jfebruarp 25,1994
Paris abroad a valued experience
Holly Winer
Guest Writer
Last semester eight juniors from
Guilford called Paris, France their
home. For three and a half months
we immersed ourselves in the cul
ture of "the city of lights" learn
ing the language, discovering the
museums, monuments, and di
verse neighborhoods, and of
course, consuming gross amounts
of French bread and pastries.
The eight of us, Emily Bakken,
Amanda Inge, Jessica Mendelson,
Jessie Spence, Alicia Therrien,
Caroline Weatherbee, Lou Willis,
and Holly Winer, spent our first
European week together in the
quaint residential city of Poitiers.
Dean de la Motte, our brave and
fearless faculty leader, introduced
us to the French countryside,
French churches, and French food.
We dined with a local family, went
to a futuristic amusement park, and
gradually learned (with a few dps
from Dean) how not to appear so
blatanUy American (i.e. don't ask
for ice cubes, leave a tip, or buy 8
botdes of cheap wine at one store).
After a week of getUng better
acquainted with each other and
France, we took the T.G.V. (the
high speed train) to Paris. After
lugging a ludicrous amount of lug
gage to the taxi stand, we were off
to the Foyer des Etudiants where
we met the other North Carolina
students in our program. For the
next week, the 20 of us spent a
great deal of classroom time learn
ing about culture-shock, Paris his
tory and culture.
After a week we moved into our
permanent housing situations.
Emily, Amanda, Caroline, and I
took up residence in the Pension
Ladagnous, a charming boarding
house complete with French high
school students, artists, and tour
ists. We were a 30-second walk
from the Luxembourg Gardens
and within a 5-mile-radius of the
Latin Quarter, the Louvre, Notre
Dame, the Sorbonne, and the
Seine.
Lou and Jessie lived with fami
lies in the suburbs. They both en
joyed the comforts of private bed
rooms, refrigerators, and televi
sion. But they did not always en
joy their daily hour-long metro
rides into the city.
Jessica and Alicia shared a room
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in an apartment in St. Germain de
Pres. They were in the heart of the
infamous cafe district
We all took classes at the Foyer
(Art and Literature or Political
Science) and one through the
Sorbonne. Our Sorbonne course,
which concentrated primarily on
grammar, met 5 times a week for
two hours a day. Since this course
was mostly grammar, most of the
learning how to socially speak the
language took place outside the
classroom.
Needless to say this (having
such a tight class schedule) made
travel a litUe difficult. But the eight
of us perservered making our
way to London for Halloween,
Munich for Oktoberfest, Spain,
Amsterdam, and Belgium.
Back in Paris, we used the metro
and our feet to carry us to muse
ums (Rodin, Louvre, Musee
d'Orsay, Picasso, just to name a
few), symphonies, plays and op
eras.
During the week we stu>
(well, sort of) taking breaks at ca
fes and patisseries. On the week
ends we travelled, went to disco
theques and entertained visiting
Guilford people, showing them the
sights (which always seemed to in
clude the Sacre Coeur, the Louvre,
and Jim Morrison's grave at Pere
Lachaise).
As Ernest Hemingway once
said, "If you are lucky enough to
have lived in Paris as a young man
(or woman), then wherever you go
for the rest of your life, it stays with
you, for Paris is a movable feast"
And what a feast it was.
While one article cannot de
scribe an entire semester there, I
can tell you that we learned a lot.
Buy a Euro-rail pass. Go up the
Eiffel Tower at night. Be prepared
for extreme culture shock Pari
sians thought we were a bunch of
freaks because we smiled all of the
time. Don't wear flashy, bright col
ors unless you want to be stared
at. Try to speak French even if
you're butchering it the Pari
sians will appreciate the effort and
usually will respond in English.
Use the metro it's safe and takes
you everywhere. Take lots of pho
tos. Sit at least once, in all the gar
dens for lunch. Keep a journal.
Take advantage of all the art. Get
an ice cream at Berthillon by Notre
Dame. And, perhaps most impor
tantly, leave the beret at home.
Jfeatures
lIB'IB WW— II i '' 1 —
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The students in the Paris abroad program at the beginning of the semester...
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... and the students at the end, more refined and better adapted to the French culture.
For those of you Interested In going abroad to Paris, the students
that went last semester listed some of there " DO'S and DONTS"
when you go to Paris:
DO'S
Emily: go to the Violin Dingue, explore
the city
Jessie: bring lots of money, go to Mt.
St. Michel, visit all the museums and
churches
Holly : walk the streets in the rain and
at midnight, eat tons of pain au chocolats
Lou: travel —especially to Oktoberfest
& Amsterdam, eat at McDonald's
Caroline: go to the Jardin de Luxem
bourg, travel! visit the other Guilford stu
dents in other countries
Jessica: buy a Euro-Rail pass, bring
peanut butter
Amanda: fall in love with a French boy
(just kidding), wander around the city, buy
cool postcards
Alicia: eat at Mandarin Maubert (near
Latin Quarter), go to the Rodin Museum
DON'T'S
Emily: get drunk and call U.S. on a calling
card, fall asleep on the metro
Jessie: bring summer clothes
Holly: attempt to cross the street without
being at a crosswalk
Lou: live in the suburbs, jump on the (elec
trified) metro tracks for any reason, even a
beret
Caroline: take every meal at the Pension
Ladagnous, play "Circle of Death" with cheap
red wine
Jessica: be fearful of using improvisation
on the metros (i.e. throwing up) when you are
approached by strange men
Amanda: call home often (it can be expen
sive), smile at scary men, step in the numer
ous little brown "piles" on the sidewalks
Alicia: eat the dry, moldy toast at Madame
Sauvignac's
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9
Photo submitted by Holly Winer
Photo submitted by Holly Winer