Being a student at Yale... and having the best of our lives

 

Being a student at Yale...

Being a summer session student at Yale is a life-changing experience.

I think that, as a French student, I am fully able to experience and appreciate living on an American campus. Of course, we also have campus and boarding schools in France, but nothing compared to what’s here.

I do believe that, here, students have a sincere feeling of being part of a community. For instance, some of them are in no hurry to leave campus as soon as they can, they do prefer to extend their stay. I asked my residential counselor about that, he told me that he wanted to stay a little bit longer in order to work on his research project, have fun with his friends and girlfriend etc. He told me that he had enough time to stay here for a while and go visit his family. I liked that.

I love this feeling of affiliation to a school family. After all, students eat together at breakfast, lunch and diner, go to class together, share the same hobbits, and sometimes even live on the same colleges. I assume it would be very tricky not to feel comfortable with her/his classmates.

This sorority spirit is really an American thing. They even managed to create shirts, pants, mugs, pillows, schools material etc in the effigy of the University, and in the effigy of each college of the University. I wonder how students are divided into colleges, and if there is a rivalry between colleges. I love that each one has its own emblem.

…and having the best of our lives

As far as we are concerned, I also love the fact that, once you have paid the tuition fees, the University takes care of almost everything. It already organized for us a trip to a theme park (Six Flags). I really enjoyed it because, even though the roller coasters were quite frightening, we don’t have anything like that in France, even in Disneyland Paris or in the Parc Astérix. Americans like to do things in a disproportionate way. Moreover, it’s been ages since I didn’t go to an amusement park, so it felt really good to go back to childhood.

We also had the privilege to go to a Yankee game on a Sunday afternoon. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and I tried to focus on the game in order to understand the rules (unfortunately we do not practice this sport in France), but, to be honest, I did not really succeed in doing so. However, what surprised me is that the way Americans enjoy these kind of games is really different from the way we enjoy sport in France. I mean, the game is three or four hours long, and people seem to be living their lives around the stadium, and from time to time to have a look at what’s happening on the field. In France, football games for instance are quite long, but still not as long as the baseball games. People are really focused on what’s happening on the field, and they usually don’t leave their seats for too long.

Last but not least (I mean we did plenty other activities but I will not write about all of them in a same post), we went to Yale private lake on a Friday afternoon. It was really nice to have a break on a Friday with all of the students of the Summer sessions, to eat hot dogs, swim into a relatively hot water, and do kayak. I do believe that Francesca and I made a really good team! I will always remember these memories.