Coming Soon to a Sweet Briar Quarterly Near You...

We were sent an email asking to write (in English) for SB's Quarterly, so I volunteered to spit something out. Let me know what you think, my parents gave me 2 totally different answers, one which was positive (thanks Mom!) and one which was less than positive (bu hao, BaBa).

There is little as nerve-wracking as studying abroad, other than studying abroad and living with a host family. The questions are endless: what will they be like? Can they cook well? Are there any pets? And, in my case, will their trunk of their car be big enough to fit all of my suitcases when they pick me up on the first day?

Lady luck (actually, Mme Parnet) was on my side and I got placed within the perfect family for me. That isn’t to say that everything has been easy; the first day was beyond nerve-wracking. After quickly meeting my host at the assigned meeting point, I was whisked away to my new home-away-from-home, smack in the middle of Paris. I met almost the entire family that first weekend, even though I primarily live with the parents and the youngest daughter (the other 4 children are grown up/in graduate school). The beginning was rough – I had to determine what my role within the family was and how I would fit in. Additionally, learning new customs (I’m not too good at peeling pears with my knife) and new vocabulary (it’s a good thing I had the foresight to Google translate what “couilles” meant, instead of asking at the dinner table) took its toll on me, and dinner time conversations were always a bit strained. There were times when all I wanted to do was to fade into the woodwork, as well as times when I thought I was the woodwork. Living with a host family meant that I was sometimes privy to too much information.

Yet 4 weeks and 5 days later (but hey, who’s counting?), I realized that I had been matched perfectly to my host-family. Their senses of humor are compatible with mine (such as when Madame fed me rabbit, when the beloved family pet is a rabbit named Cookie), they are attentive but not overbearing, and they care about me and my well-being. From history lessons during dinner (don’t ask for a resume of 19^th century France and expect to be finished in a half-hour) to watching the youngest daughter’s chorale concerts, I have been fully included in my “maison d’acceuil”.

There is nothing as nerve-wracking as living with a foreign family, while studying abroad. There is also nothing as valuable as living with a foreign family, while studying abroad. My memories won’t soon be forgotten: Madame turning out exquisite meals from the kitchen smaller than my room at the apartment, Monsieur trying to cram as much French history in me as possible, Priscilla asking me what my feelings are about “Gossip Girls” and being happy when I said that I not only liked it, but that I would tell her parents that she needed to watch it weekly to improve her English, too. I have been given the opportunity of a lifetime, thanks to Sweet Briar’s Junior Year in France home stay placement program.

This is Cookie. S/he has not been eaten yet. Keyword: Yet.

Anyway, I decided this would not be the appropriate place to express how agitated I am when they feed me dinner at 10 pm, or how I am sometimes there for their blockbuster fights. But in this case, the positives way outweigh the negatives, and I am so totally luck to be placed where I was.