Tiffany Lin

I always knew, since I started school at Berkeley, that I wanted to study abroad. After hearing about my sister's experience studying abroad in Paris I knew that I wanted to study abroad in France as well. I chose Bordeaux because I really wanted to experience living in a smaller french city where the inhabitants are truly french people and not tourists. In this way, I would be able to better see what the lifestyle and true culture of France is. I have always had an interest in learning the french language because it truly sounds beautiful to me and studying abroad in France would give me a great opportunity to improve my french.

The most interesting cultural experience I had was when I visited the wine museum that's situated in Bordeaux. The city of Bordeaux is known for its wine because there any many vineyards, or "chateaux", near the city. The museum was a really cool experience for me because I was able to learn a little about the long history of Bordeaux as a major port and how wine became so integrated into the french gastronomy.

The biggest concern for me was that my ability to speak french when I first arrived in Bordeaux was very limited. I had only previously taken 1 class on french in Berkeley and thought that I was wildly unprepared. Even talking to people at the supermarket gave me anxiety and made me feel incompetent. The way I responded was by focusing more time on improving my french in class and talking more with my host family until by the end of the semester I was able to communicate pretty well with a french person who didn't know how to speak any english at all.

A typical day starts with me joining my french host family for breakfast at the dining table and then hurrying to catch the bus to get to the university. I'd spend the day in class, learning how to perfect my french language skills and about the unique aspects of french culture. I would get a pretty tasty lunch in the school cafeteria with my friends for only about 3 euros. After class, it was a habit for my friend and I to stop by the local supermarket, Auchan, to buy some snacks after which we would part ways. Back at the house of my host family, I would work on some homework in the living room and chat with my host sister about school, life, etc. At around 8:30pm, our host mom would call us to dinner and we would have an absolutely delicious french meal that was cooked by her. I'd sometimes take a dessert after dinner, a strawberry-apple sauce normally, and then the whole family would migrate to the living room to chat and play some music. Every so often, my other host sister would be practicing the piano and we would just all chat about our days until it started getting late and we would each go to our rooms to bed.

I took classes on written, oral, and cultural french. I also took a class on interdisciplinary biology which was structured so that groups of students would each research a specific genetic disease and by the end of the course, present all the information we've found in a website and oral presentation. The courses I took abroad were relatively easier than the courses that I took at Berkeley but I was able to improve my french much more rapidly than I did at Berkeley.

The most memorable thing for me was the friends I made abroad, both from the UC schools and french students. They were the ones I explored Bordeaux with and who I traveled to 10 different countries with. They really shaped the time that I spent there and were the reason I had such an amazing, life-changing time.

Studying abroad has made me more confident in speaking to people who may not speak the same language as me and its also encouraged me to keep learning french and to maybe start learning another language as well. I began having an interest in learning about different cultures and that may be why I started working at the International House at Berkeley this past summer. It's also made me realize that it's not so unrealistic to find career opportunities in other countries in the future.

I would like to say that studying abroad was personally the best decision I've made in my college career. Bordeaux really became a home for me and I could never get over how beautiful and lively the city was. The program that I did in Bordeaux was great because I was able to have classes with American, international, and French students. It really allowed me to see how the university life was like for normal french students but also let me have American friends who I could relate with about being abroad. I was also able to befriend a significant number of international students who were also in Bordeaux to study french.