France
Mary LaDrière
Issue date: 10/26/05 Section: features
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Versus Magazine Online [Image based format]
Mon chien a mangé mes devoirs. Translation : « My dog ate my homework. » I arrived in Aix-en-Provence, France knowing how to say no more than "Bonjour" and "Merci". But with the help of my professors and fellow upper-level French students (who, as you may have guessed, taught me the very useful phrase above), I returned home after eight weeks knowing so much more.
At the conclusion of last semester, I found myself debating my summer plans. I could get an internship, but no, I thought, I still have another summer for that. Instead, I decided I have always wanted to learn French, and what better way to do this than to go to France! Even more exciting was the discovery that the Vanderbilt-In-France summer program is offered to both French students and beginners like me. A month and two very heavy suitcases later, I was on a plane with two of my best friends (they thought this trip was a great idea, too), not quite sure of what lay ahead.
The three of us arrived in Marseille, and we were bombarded by French. After wandering around the airport-undoubtedly looking extremely touristy and lost-we tracked down a cab to take us forty-five minutes away to the small city of Aix-en-Provence. The very silent ride ended with the driver dropping us off at the end of a tiny cobblestone street, where we lugged our suitcases toward two large, brown doors and rang the bell. This was the center where we would have our classes, and immediately we were greeted with friendly faces and French salutations. A while later, we were taken to our apartment, which was quite cute, save the fact that it had no air conditioning (but really very few places in France have this treasured commodity). We exhaustedly fell onto our beds and awoke the next morning in preparation of our first excursion to the beautiful beaches of Cassis.