CIEE French and Critical Studies in Paris, France

This program was a lot harder academically than advisors made it out to be. It was hard to get help from the staff about problems that occurred with teachers. I was also in a homestay that was not located in the city of Paris. We had many problems with specific teachers and how they graded which was tough to deal with. We also dealt with a lot of administrative tasks that students should not have been dealing with. I learned a lot, but the academic side made it very tough to enjoy the culture side.

This a retelling of what's in my fellow CPEC (as it was known then) student's intro chapter to his personal memoir and history of the circus called The Ordinary Acrobat (plug!). Our program director told us we had an event coming up--a circus show. Circus? With elephants? No, no. Nouveau Cirque. We saw Et après on verra bien, loosely translated "And after, you'll really see", incorporating acrobatics, a guy singing Simon and Garfunkel in a French accent, a guy yelling "Ça va!!!" et us responding and a guy falling with a chair on a trampoline, saying in French, "the more you guy up, the more you'll come down." It inspired me to continue nurturing my passion for the arts in French and my friend to write a book and have a career in circus and all of us to want to learn French better.