Post-Program Reflection

Nearly 7 weeks ago I arrived at the JFK airport with my large suitcase, stuffed to the seams, surrounded by unfamiliar faces whom with I would spend the month of July.  At first Nice seemed so unfamiliar. I remember arriving at the residence wondering how I would ever be able to make my way around the town.  There were so many different allies and streets, winding in every direction.  Within no time, however, it was like I had been living there for a year.

One thing that was especially unique about traveling with Abbey Road was that you experience France the way the locals do.  I immediately became very familiar with old Nice, as it was loaded with shopping and gelato.  From the beginning, we spent a lot of time in old Nice, whether it was during morning classes, or afternoon free time. The living situation was another bonus to an already wonderful trip.  We each had our own room, which included a small kitchenette and bathroom.

I thought the Abbey Road staff was amazing.  Besides from being fluent in french, all of the teachers lived in France.  Our classes were based primarily on conversation, rather than grammar like we often get in school.  We spent the first half of class in the classroom, and then for the remainder of class, we applied what we had just learned outside in the city of Nice.

Additionally, the staff made every effort to work with student requests.  At the beginning of the program, some students had suggested that Pearla, our program's personal chef, would provide lunch on a more regular bases.  From then on, both lunch and dinner was offered every day.

One of my favorite aspects of the program was the weekend traveling.  Some highlights included the small village of Eze, Cannes, Saint Tropez, Antibes, San Remo (Italy!), and Isola.  All the towns were so much different.  Some towns seemed to reflect more of their old european charm, whereas other towns were more modern and heavily populated with tourists.

I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my month of July.

San Remo, Italy

For our final weekend day trip, the staff planned a "surprise" trip to San Remo, Italy.  The main surprise of going to Italy wasn't much of a surprise because we all happened to find out about the trip before hand; however, we were greeted with another surprise when we arrived in Italy- spending the day at a private beach club! The luxury of having beach chairs was definitely one of my highlights for the day.  After settling at the beach, we broke off into separate groups and headed into town for lunch. I had a delicious procioutto pizza at an Italien restaurant for only 6 euros!  Once we finished lunch, we walked around the city for a while.  I was surprised because it seemed like the majority of the stores were closed. It was midday Saturday, so that made no sense to me.  Eventually we made our way back down to the beach, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing by the water.

Visiting San Remo, Italy  assured me that I had become very adjusted to French.  Even when I was ordering food at the restaurant, I would naturally say "bonjour" rather than just "hello" and then continue to order my meal in french.  I was surprised how hard it can be to switch between languages.  Of course, this was Italy so their custom language is Italian which made speaking all the more challenging.  However, I had not realized how comfortable I had become with french until I was exposed to a language I knew nothing about.