France.

L'Universite de Rennes II, France.

Please excuse the lack of accent marks. France. Now, it is absolutely imperative you understand that I cannot speak for all of France, nor can I speak for anyone else's experience in France. I lived in Rennes, about 2 hours west of Paris in Northwestern France from August 2008 through December 2008.

Part of my heritage is that of French, and ever since I was little I have studied their culture and language. I always knew I wanted to travel to France, and to have the opportunity to live there was one I could not turn down. The classes I took there were predominantly classes in French language and culture which were taught in French and which I took with other foreign students. Unlike Ghana, where most of the students were American, very few at this university were. It made for a great opportunity to meet not only French students, but Asian, African, European, and Australian students interested in French language and French culture.

I was not able to travel the way in France that I was able to travel in Ghana unfortunately. For one reason, it was much less expensive to travel in Ghana. For another, the economic crisis in the United States was having repercussions for Americans traveling abroad. Not only was the dollar losing value, but there was a horrible stigma attached to Americans abroad. This made is difficult to become friends with French students, but I managed to find a few who really valued friendship.

Of course, friendship in France was different than friendship in Ghana or America. As it seems to me, Americans will befriend anyone rhetorically but rarely do Americans take their new friends to a new level of friendship - the one beyond cordial waves as you pass each other in campus and casual talks in coffee shops. In Ghana, I found that Americans were accepted by the culture openly but this degree of "kindness to strangers" was often extended to a stronger friendship. In France, rarely to the French befriend anyone on the surface level without an intention of building a stronger friendship with them later. This was frustrating at first, as I felt outcasted but I soon realized this is simply a cultural difference that perhaps Americans could seek to learn from.

I traveled to Paris while I was there. It was wet and rainy...hardly the best traveling experience, but for what it's worth, I did enjoy it in the sense that I got to visit Paris, see the tourist attractions, and shop. But Rennes was much more my area than Paris. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the markets in Rennes - probably my favorite part. We're talking fresh everything - fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, etc. Not to mention a giant flea market-type scenario, selling everything from meaningless trinkets to journals to jewelry to kitchen gadgets. Hands down, my favorite aspect about France was the Saturday morning markets.

The good thing about traveling to France is I can now speak the language and can now speak on the culture. The bad thing is I'm not there anymore.