4.2.09

Independent Travel:

One of the most anticipated parts of the School Year Abroad program is the ability to do independent travel. At the School Year Abroad sites in France, Spain, and Italy students are allowed to travel alone or with friends without adult supervision. This opportunity is given once a month and occurs mainly in the second semester of the year, after the students have gained a sufficient level of the native language. For SYA France, the two most popular periods to do independent travel are during our February and April vacations, where we are given two weeks of break. During each vacation we have a mandatory school trip at the beginning: for February we went to Paris, and for April we are going to go to Provence. But after the school trip is over, we have roughly ten days to do travel wherever we would like that the school finds appropriate.
For my February break, three friends and I decided to go to Toulouse and Bordeaux, two major French cities in the south/southwest of France. The trip was incredible, mainly due to the fact that we had a complete freedom and independence that none of us have ever had before. Our trip in Toulouse was especially independent, for we rented an apartment and had absolutely no form of surveillance or strict rules telling us what we were allowed to do and when we could do it. In Bordeaux we stayed at a youth hostel, where we bizarrely were the only youth there, more often finding middle aged people and this one bitter old woman who accused us of stealing her cake. However, no matter what the lodging was we had a great time using our French to get around and explore the two cities.
After our stay in Bordeaux, my three friends returned to our home-city Rennes, while I traveled solo to visit my friend who lives in Spain. Unfortunately for me, my traveling did not go as planned, for my connecting train from Bordeaux to a small town near the French/Spanish border broke down before it reached the final stop, also experiencing problems with the police due to someone who apparently had been on the train illegally. We stayed on the train for an hour without moving, finally being told we would never reach the final stop (my stop), and therefore we would have to take a bus to get there. Fortunately for me, I had made friends with a young college student who was sitting across the aisle from me who was Spanish but spoke fluent French as well, and with her Spanish skills (the town we were left at was a predominately Spanish speaking town) she was able to help me find my way to reach my friend in Spain. No more trains were running that day to my friend’s city, so I had to buy a bus ticket instead which would take me directly to his city. Waiting for the bus, I met an old Spanish woman who spoke French as well, who was my guide on the bus to make sure I got off at the right stop. She spoke French with a strong Spanish accent, pronouncing phrases like “quand-même” as “kay may”, so understanding her and communicating with her was a personal accomplishment in itself. In the end, I reached my friend’s city and the trip was great, and the return train rides to Rennes went smoothly.
With April break coming up in one week, I have been planning my vacation with two of my good friends to travel to Switzerland together. We are going youth hostel jumping from Geneva to Annecy and then to Lausanne, and then take a train out into the mountains where we are going to stay at a campsite. The campsite is close to a big ski resort where a very big four day multi-lingual music festival is occurring, which we are going to go see for Friday and Saturday night. I am extremely excited for the trip because it will be a new opportunity to learn about a different country and culture, and a more camping based trip will be a great contrast from an urban French vacation.