Summer Study Abroad: Tufts in Talloires
Last summer (2023) I studied abroad in Talloires, France, through a Tufts Summer Abroad Program via the European Center at Tufts. This is a six-week summer-semester program which is open to undergraduate students at Tufts and other universities that offers students the opportunity to take two credit-bearing courses taught by Tufts faculty. I picked classes that were outside of my major classes and classes that I would otherwise not have the time to take at Tufts. The two classes I picked were, CH 01 Introduction to Community Health and SOC 0149 Sociology of Travel and Tourism. Both these classes were such a great learning experience and so fun.
The Tufts in Talloires experience consisted of living with a host family as a part of immersing in French culture, but since I did not know any French, I was placed with a host family that spoke French and English. Family dinners typically consisted of a couple of courses ranging from a charcuterie board and salad, a main dish and dessert which was was always the cherry on the top. I also managed to pick up on a few French words and phrases during my time with them and in the region.
Our weekdays typically consisted of going to class, and then hanging out by Lake Annecy, which was absolutely gorgeous. Before class we would all crowd the bakery and get pain au chocolat and morning coffee. We would also hang out by this restaurant by the Lake by the evenings and catch up, spend time at the beach studying or just doing our readings.
Classes were a little bit intense because we had classes almost every day for a couple of hours and then had readings, discussion posts, assignments due so we had to be on top of our work, but we managed to do this in an amazing environment. We were also able to get to know our professors and they were able to get to know us since it was a small group of people in every class.
However, I think personally for me the best part about studying abroad was the ability to travel. I was able to take day trips to Chamonix- a place near the junction of France, Switzerland and Italy. It was absolutely beautiful, and we got to hike up a mountain as well. Then for my Sociology class excursion, we went chocolate tasting in Geneva for the day and got to see the Lake Geneva and the Flower Clock, and had a little bit of time to explore the city. I even ended up going to Geneva again later on and got to explore the city a little more. As part of my Community Health class excursion we went to Lyon, a city in France that is full of gorgeous sites and our field trip consisted of us going to a local farmer’s market and doing some research there. After this, we got to go to the Gastronomy Museum in the Grand Hôtel-Dieu. Here we learned more about the culinary world since it is an important part of French culture. We got some time to explore during this excursion as well. I was also able to go to Milan, Lake Como, and a few other places in Italy for a weekend with my friend who was studying abroad in Rome this summer and it was the highlight of my experience. I also went to Paris with my family before starting summer school and had a great time exploring there as well.
The group of people in this program were great and I got really close to some of them and they are still my friends. We catch up and reminiscence about our time in the summer. Overall, I think this was a great experience and I highly recommend it for people who do not want to go abroad for an entire semester or year since this is a shorter program and you won’t be missing out on Medford time.