Submitted by Kayla Dickens on the 2014 fall semester study abroad program in Paris, France…
We left Saturday morning bright and early for Mont Saint Michel, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and it truly was a magnificent place. Aside from the beauty and the fact that walking onto the Mont you could tell there was a long history, there was so much to be learned. We only did a guided tour of the abbey and didn’t have time to participate in the other activities or see the other historical museums and the like, but nevertheless I felt as though I learned a lot about the history of France (an area of knowledge where I am admittedly very lacking) just by touring a single abbey. The best part was that I chose to do the tour in French rather than using an English audio guide, and I was so glad I made that choice. I understood a large majority of the French, nearly all of it, which was both reassuring of my abilities as well as excellent listening practice.
There was not much time to shop after the tour, but after browsing a few of the boutiques I noticed that nearly all of them had the exact same things and there were really only trinkets there so I was okay with that, I just wish I had stayed in the actual gift shop for longer rather than following the rest of the group out because they seemed to have some pretty neat souvenirs and gifts. At any rate, we were off to Saint Malo pretty soon after the tours were over, and while I was not particularly excited because I had no idea what Saint Malo was, I was in for a huge surprise. I actually enjoyed Saint Malo even more than Mont Saint Michel. It definitely felt like being sent back to the Middle Ages in Saint Malo, and it was fascinating to be in a walled city for the first time.
Sunday morning’s guided tour of Saint Malo was excellent; this time I picked the English tour and while at first I thought I should have done the French, I think I am glad that I chose English because our tour guide was hilarious which made it very enjoyable. I probably would have loved learning the history anyway, but you never know, sometimes people have very different experiences based on the attitudes of their tour guides so for now I’ll say I made the good choice for the day. At any rate, it was fascinating to learn the history of a walled city that exists on what was (and basically still is) an island, and again I learned a lot more about the history of France.
After the weekend excursion, I really see the value in learning and exploring outside the classroom, so I really appreciate that our professors here seem to see that as well. And it’s not necessarily that I thought before that one couldn’t learn outside the classroom—as a transfer student from a small liberal arts school to a school that provides a million internship, lab, and study abroad opportunities, I am well aware that there is plenty of learning to be done outside of a classroom without a teacher, but I just didn’t realize until last weekend that it’s really travelling that allows you to learn so much about a place, an idea that was reinforced during my visit to Lyon with two other students on the program. Every adventure is a chance to grow personally and learn more about the history of this brand-new-to-me continent that I am falling more in love with every day (although it still needs to work a little harder to steal my heart from Philadelphia).
