Students Everywhere

There’s a lycée -- a high school -- just down the street from the apartment, and most mornings I can hear the students gathering outside in the street. They stand around in little groups, just like American teenagers, but the collective effect in this little street is to create an enormous sea of kids. Their voices echo the sounds of French on the stone and brick walls of the rue Suger and fill the morning air with talk and laughter.

Reid Hall, where my office is located, is the home not just of the Columbia University study abroad program but also hosts many other schools’ study abroad programs. So it’s full of American college students, many of whom like to gather in the garden and talk in English, sharing stories of their lives in Paris.

Living so close to two groups of students, it almost feels like I’m still on campus much of the time. And there really aren’t that many differences between the French and American students I see so often. They gather to share each other’s company and to learn about life and themselves.