Hi! My name is Dara Rowell. I’m a junior majoring in chemical engineering. In July I had the opportunity to study abroad in my favorite country during the French in Perpignan program. I chose to do this program because I love learning anything about French culture and what better way is there to learn about the culture than living in France for a month! This was my first time to travel outside the United States so everything was a new experience for me. I loved every little detail of this trip from the airplane food and listening to French radio commercials on Chérie FM to attending daily mass at Notre Dame, all the roundabouts, and the beautiful cypress trees. I was extremely fortunate to have taken this trip of a lifetime. If I had the ability to do this study abroad program again, I would do it a 100 times!
We stayed in Toulouse, France for three days and that’s where I got to know our group a little better before we started classes in Perpignan. We went to churches and convents in the mornings and then we had the afternoons off to explore the city. One day we walked to the space museum, Cité de L’espace, that we thought would take about 30 minutes to get there, but it ended up being an hour away! It was fun though because we stopped along the way and played on a French playground. We always came together in the evenings to have our group dinners.
After our days in Toulouse we left for Perpignan and met our host families at the bus/train station. This was the most nerve-racking part because I had to start speaking French, it was actually happening! I had only taken a year and a half of French, so my French was not very good at all (I always had to say: Je parle un peu français, meaning I speak a little French, to anyone who spoke French to me). I knew this program would be a challenge for me, but I was ready for it! Luckily, I was fortunate enough to live with another student from our group, Vanessa, to help me out. Our host family lived about 30 minutes away from the University and they drove us to school everyday. Our family was a married couple with 2 daughters close to our age. We always ate dinner together at the table. We also had a dog, two cats, some chickens, and two turtles.
Dara, a Chemical Engineering major, studied abroad with our U of A Faculty-Led: French in Perpignan program.
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To find out more about the French in Perpignan summer program, visit http://studyabroad.uark.edu/perpignan.
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