Do I Need Four Years of a Foreign Language?
As you have been researching potential colleges lately, I’m sure you’ve come across a handful of confusing distinctions. One such thing that we…
Bonjour from Talloires, my home for the next month and a half! For those who don’t know, Tufts has a fourth campus in Talloires, a tiny village in the French Alps. The building here is an 11th century priory, one of the buildings used in a monastery, and it is every bit as beautiful as it sounds. I’ve been looking forward to coming here since I first applied to the program. I’ve had friends tell me that this was the best thing they’ve done at Tufts, and now I’m able to try it for myself. While I’m here, I’m taking a course on the Romans and the Gauls with Professor Hitchner, and a class on Non-fiction Writing with Professor Ullman, but my real job is to just learn about French culture and enjoy the natural beauty of this place.
My trip started with the group flight, which left Boston at 9:45 on Monday. I only knew a few people going, but none of them were on the flight with me. However, every young person on the plane was going to Talloires, via Zurich and Geneva, so it wasn’t hard to make friends even from the beginning. We landed in Zurich at 10 am (6 am Boston time), so none of us had really slept all that much, and we just kind of clustered together for the second flight and hoped for the best. In the airport at Geneva, we all found each other and hopped on the bus to Talloires, where our host families came to get us.
My family is a mother, Guillemette, and her fifteen year old son Paul, and another student from a French university, Olivier. They speak some english, but not much, and I speak a little bit of French, and only the textbook variety, but I’m trying to follow along. They live in the small village of Menthon Saint-Bernard. With only about 3km between them and Talloires, it’s not far to get from one to the other, though walking there is kind of difficult since the roads are narrow and the hills are steep. Though the terrain makes Tufts look like nothing at all, it’s a gorgeous little village. There’s also a beautiful castle here that somebody told me was used as the inspiration for the castle from Beauty and the Beast, though I have to to confirm that. I went on a run yesterday, and though I was huffing and puffing from the attitude and the insane elevation gain, I enjoyed it thoroughly.
I’ve put up a few pictures of the mountains and the Priory, and I’m sure I’ll take many many more during my time here, but they really don’t do justice to the place. I still have this feeling of being in a dream. I’m afraid that I’ll wake up tomorrow morning and find this place was all just a backdrop. I don’t know how a place this beautiful can actually exist. I was stunned just looking out the window of the bus, and then again as I got to the village, and a third time when I look out my own window at home. Honestly, how is it possible?
As you have been researching potential colleges lately, I’m sure you’ve come across a handful of confusing distinctions. One such thing that we…