The early start program I participated in was really fun, and I am glad I did it for the bonds I made with my fellow students, but wow I was exhausted.
The first day started off as most first days at a new college starts: sitting in a chair stupidly early listening to people introduce themselves and talk about the same thing we talked about during the pre-orientation meetings. My roommates, Grace and Eshen, and I were almost late that day because our app took us a completely different direction than the school.
After that, and each morning after, we had French class, although I was put in the wrong one so I had no idea what the professor was saying half the time. I was too anxious to bring it up though, so I just had to sit and suffer. I partially blame the people who put me in that class, but also my French hearing comprehension has failed me miserably this whole time. I am so thankful that Mara was in that class too because she helped me a ton.
I know you want to hear every single itty-bitty detail about my time sitting in an uncomfortable wooden chair talking about visas, but I will skip most of the other “orientation” orientation stuff and get to the good stuff: all the fun activities.
So Tuesday, August 30th, was the first real day I was out on the town. We were almost late that morning too, but that’s besides the point. In our French groups, we did rotating groups doing two different activates. We did a tour of Aix, which was beautiful. So many areas I hadn’t explored up to that point, including the main monument of the town: the massive “Fontaine de la Rotonde”. I’ll be mentioning it in the future, but I’m just going to refer to it as “the Rotonde” for future reference.
We are told to not be the drunk American stereotype, but one of the reasons why our tour guide rushed through the beginning part of the tour, was to be able to show us “Bar Street” as everyone calls it. Needless to say, that’s a popular spot. Fun fact: the busiest day to go out here is a Thursday night. Another fun fact: one of our alumni fellows this semester is a graduated English major from Linfield! Isn’t that nuts?
The other event we did was a wine and cheese tasting, and that was interesting as I don’t like wine. This was the one event my mom was jealous of when I told her, so I instantly sent her a picture when I did it, to which I got an annoyed response.
Fast forward a day and we have our first excursion: a trip to Ile de Porquerolles. The beach! This was probably my favorite excursion we’ve gone on since I’ve gotten here. We took a bus to an island that we had to ride a ferry to get onto and then we were on this beautiful Mediterranean island!
The food was delicious, and oh my gosh the water! Obviously we go to school in Oregon, so the water is cold. I’ll swim because I’m crazy and used to it, but most won’t. This water was so warm and blue, and while it was a lot saltier than I expected, I did not care. Swimming in the Mediterranean sea is what really made it sink in that I was in France.
Around this time, COVID decided to rear its ugly head and while I did not catch it, one of my roommates and almost all her friend group got it. It actually spread through quite a few of the ESP kids, causing us to be uninvited to the ESP/Regular student mixer that Sunday. Oops 🙁
The last day of the program was a picnic in a nearby park after French. It was a really chill way to end off the chaotic week of cooking classes (which is ironic because most of us can’t use the kitchen in our home stays) and library visits.
You’d think we’d be at classes now, but nope. There was one more thing in the way: regular orientation plus it’s excursion. We were banned from the regular orientation because of COVID, but were allowed on the trip to La Ciotat, another beach town. While beautiful in it’s own right, this trip required more hiking and overall, more busywork than our gleeful splash through Ile de Porquerolles. The ocean was colder there too, but just as salty. I still had fun though.
Felicity
