My Year in France

Sarah Arndt FR’09, The Branson School '10

My French host family was one of the best parts of my SYA experience. The host family dynamics differ from person to person. For some students it works out beautifully and they build life-long connections with their family and for others it presents more of a challenge. I am happy to say I had the latter. In my family I had a single mother, Marie, and a sister, Eloise. Eloise was not always home, but Marie and I ate dinner together every night. Over the year, I became very close with Marie due to the time I spent chatting with her at dinner. I also credit my improved French to the obligation I felt to speak each night. Talking at the dinner table did not make my French suddenly perfect. It just taught me to be comfortable making mistakes.

The SYA program advertises independent travel as one of the best parts of the program. I loved independent travel and was able to do two weekend trips to Paris over the course of the year. I also spent a week in Nice with friends over the April break. I have fabulous memories of the trips. However, I found I ended up staying in Rennes most of the year because there was always a lot to do right at home. I also quickly learned that with a little more independence comes a lot more responsibility such as the realization that traveling is very expensive.

The academics go along more slowly than Branson because they are in a foreign language. Last year I came to appreciate Branson’s amazing academics and also to miss them. SYA taught me how to contextualize knowledge, to realize that there is a lot more to learn, and it stretched my brain in ways it had never been stretched before. What you learn in the classroom then helps you on trips to French chateaux or on nights when you go home and talk with your host family. What you work on each day at school is not forgotten once you leave the building. Suddenly your brain has to be prepared every time you want to say a simple sentence. The phrase “think before your speak” takes on a very literal meaning.

Also, if anyone has written SYA off because of sports, there are opportunities to play your sport abroad. It depends on what sport you play, and it is something you should look into beforehand, but it is definitely available and lots of fun. I had one friend who played on a super competitive soccer team, and another who won a national cross country running competition.  

I would encourage every sophomore and junior to look into the program (juniors too, as there are some definite advantages to being abroad your senior year).  There is no harm in checking out the website, going to the meeting, or even just applying and then deciding whether it is something you’d love.