Elana Movshovich - St. Laurent 2012 - Abbey Road: August 2012

Monday, August 20, 2012

Looking back

I can't believe that only 3 weeks ago I was with all of my friends and living with my homestay family in St. Laurent du Var! Coming back home to New York was definitely bittersweet and was quite an adjustment (culturally and the time change, worst jet lag ever!). The first few days I was home I found myself comparing everything I did or saw to the way it was in France. Even simply talking to friends or family I found myself saying "merci" and "d'accord" and "ouais" all the time without even thinking. Some things were just easier to say in French! Especially as I started speaking Russian with my family (I obviously didn't get to speak much while in France), I kept wanting to mix French into conversation. The obvious reason for this is that I spent a month living in France! But I think what really did it was the homestay experience. A homestay provides complete immersion into language and culture because its experiential and involves, even requires, constant interaction. I did learn a lot in class, but I think I learned the most just talking to my family. In conversation we would learn French expressions, proverbs, and slang used daily...and the French love conversing so that meant lots of learning! Our homestay parents would also correct our mistakes and encourage and help us express exactly what we wanted to say. I believe that during our free time, although we would often speak English to each other, we also got to practice our French a lot ordering food, getting help from salespeople, or asking for directions. Even though it was embarrassing and everyone in town knew us by the end of the month, asking the locals questions for class exercises definitely helped us develop our speaking skills, especially addressing people formally. Our teachers made sure to always speak to us in French unless it was concerning check-ins or important times to meet. We learned a lot from them and they were always available for any problems we had. We all loved talking to them and comparing American and French culture with them. And even when we weren't talking, just hearing French around us all the time helped with pronunciation and understanding how certain words and phrases are used. I know everyone learned a lot about the French language and culture over the course of the month thanks to our great teachers and our awesome homestay families!

All of the day activites planned for us were fun just because our group was so close, but I think my actual favorite ones were the photography elective, the cooking workshop, visiting museums (I wish we could've seen more!), and parasailing. They were all a great mix of learning and fun. As for day trips, Nice goes without saying, my favorites were St. Jean Cap Ferrat, St. Paul de Vence, St. Tropez, and San Remo. They were all beautiful and very French (except for San Remo) in their own ways. There was no place we went to that I didn't take photos of!

My homestay family made my trip that much better. The first thing they said to us was "faites comme chez vous!" and I knew everything would be alright. After about a week we were already calling our parents by their first names and they told us to call them "tu" instead of "vous." They always made sure we were comfortable and included us in anything we wanted to be included in, like cooking! I loved helping chop vegetables and setting the table for dinner. We even made sushi together and went over to another homestay family's house for a sushi dinner! They were hosting one of my friends and one of my roommate's friends which was perfect. There were never any issues and our parents were always understanding about everything. They truly cared about us and wanted us to feel as comfortable as possible. I loved meeting our homestay mom's extended family who also wanted to know all about us and how we were liking France. We had many interesting conversations about the differences between French and American culture and life. I am still in contact with homestay family and I intend to keep it that way, they're great people!

Overall I think the most important thing is that I learned a lot on this trip. There is no way you can learn about true French culture or develop real conversational French except by spending time in the country itself. I love that Abbey Road gave us a mixture of learning and fun. I was a bit nervous about making friends coming into the program but now I realize how silly that was! Our group was amazing and I made lots of friends that I'm definitely keeping in touch with. I also realized through this trip that I want to live in France at least for a short part of my life, whether it's a year abroad in college or going to grad school there. I'm even considering the Sciences Po-Columbia University Dual BA program thanks to this experience. I can't wait to go back to France and be surrounded by French again! July was exactly the immersion and pure France that I wanted and I loved every minute of it, thank you Abbey Road!!

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Slideshow for the talent show

Here is the slideshow of the top 100 photos from our photography class, compiled by me and Fallon!

Last days in St. Laurent du Var

Our last 5 days in St. Laurent du Var were busy as usual! I didn't have much time to blog, so now that I'm home (more on that later :( ) I'll summarize what we did. Although Antibes was beautiful, the weather was not. When we got there there was a storm approaching and we couldn't go to the beach! We went to the Musée Picasso in hopes that it would rain while we were inside, but it didn't yet. The museum was great anyway, there were lots of interesting works by other artists as well as Picasso. After the museum we had about 3 hours of free time to wander around Antibes and explore. It started to rain lightly during the last half hour so most of us hung out under the huge tent covering several cafés and artists selling their work. So instead of using our towels for the beach, we used them to cover ourselves while we ran to the train station in a full on downpour! It was a pretty funny experience looking back, but we were all pretty embarrassed when we got on the train soaking wet and panting. The next day it was back to great weather and we were off to St. Tropez in maxi dresses or skirts (it was maxi-dress Monday). To get there, we first took a bus to St. Maxime and from there a boat to St. Tropez because the traffic to get into the city is crazy! The boat was fun and as soon as we got to St. Tropez we were released for free time! I went to a restaurant with 4 friends and then we looked into some boutiques (which were very expensive but really nice) while walking around. After free time we went back to St. Maxime for some beach time and a great French dinner at a brasserie. For the next couple of days we prepared for the talent show we were putting on for our host families! There was singing, dancing, and slideshows. Fallon and I compiled a slideshow of the photography classes best photos for the show. It was also a potluck, so we made some pastries and a tomato tart with our homestay mom. All the food that the families brought was very good! On Friday we went to a Claude François tribute concert at the mairie which was silly but also fun. Saturday was our last full day with the group! We were in Nice for almost the whole day. We went as a group to the Musée Chagall, which was absolutely amazing. There were 12 of his Bible paintings which were very interesting, and a lot of his other work as well. There were also some Kandinsky and Picasso works there that I enjoyed. After that we had free time until 4:30 to do last minute shopping and appreciate the Mediterranean for the last time in a while. When we arrived back to St. Laurent we had about an hour and a half to shower and get ready for our last group dinner and the restaurant we all ate at together the 2nd or 3rd night. We had an awesome meal together and did some karaoke afterwards, although we were more trying to enjoy our last moments all together. Sunday was our last homestay family day and our homestay mom Delphine took us to her sister's house to have lunch with her family and parents. We had a nice, long typical French meal together outside. Since her sister lives in a gated community, Delphine suggested going to the pool and we swam around and laid out (it was an extremely hot day) with her, Alma, and her sister and husband for an hour or two. Afterwards, Delphine and her sister took us to Grasse which is the perfume capitol of France. We went into both Molinard and Fragonard (again!), walked around the old village, and saw the beautiful view from the city. We went back home in St. Laurent for dinner and spent a last night with Delphine and Alma (Alex was on a shift), and had to finish packing! The next morning the whole family drove us to the airport at 11:30 and after a long check-in, we had a tearful goodbye with our family and our friends who were going on the Paris extension. It's still strange being home but I'll write about that in about 2 weeks when I have a better perspective on everything. Here are some photos of our last days in the meantime!

Antibes: