The experience as a whole

If you told me 3 months ago how much my outlook on life has changed after this experience, I wouldn’t have believed you. My decision to spend my summer in Rennes was hands down one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and at the same time, one of the scariest.

The first few days after arriving, everywhere I walked I looked around like a kid in a candy shop. Eyes wide and just in awe of a different architecture, culture, and lifestyle I was seeing around me (this being my first time in a non-English speaking country) and just taking everything in day by day.

Day one I met my host family, and that first week I remember the exhaustion converting my everyday conversations I was used to having with my family and translating them to French. That quickly became habit and the conversations I’ve had with my host family are now much less of a scare, but something I look forward every night at dinner. Not only was it good practice talking with them, but they opened my eyes to their view on the world, the importance of learning other cultures, and just ways of living life. Some of my favorite memories were with the 14-year-old daughter of my host family. She was just as fascinated with the American culture as I was with the French. It really went to show how my experience was also impactful for her.

The balance of freedom, and guidance that this program offers allowed me to become so much more comfortable traveling solo. The first long weekend of the program I went to Paris with a few others, and got to see the sights everyone thinks of when they think of France. It was an amazing weekend, and something I have dreamed of for so long. Along with that, it was such a good learning experience to navigate a big city, as young adults, and realizing that a good weekend doesn’t mean you saw everything you wanted to see. I originally came to France with the intent to explore at least one other country in Europe, but another thing I learned when planning travel by yourself, was it was a lot easier in hindsight rather than reality. 

The excursions planned by CIEE were also incredible. Seeing the sights of Brittany was one of my favorite parts of the program, even comparing to Paris, and a few I even returned to on our free weekends for a longer time and to do more exploring. There’s so much to do and time to do so, I think Brittany has so many hidden gems you should take advantage of seeing while being close.

My day by day is a lot more relaxed. We had class every day until at least 12pm, sometimes 3pm, with a lunch break in between. Class never really feels like class though. With the professors’ kindness, and shortly becoming very close with all my peers in the program it was more like a social hour, with some grammar and writing. I think my French really progressed the most in those hours, being forced to have intellectual conversations broadened my vocabulary. With weekly themes such as Art, Environment, Society, I learned more and more about the French culture, it was really embedded into the program. Every day we also got lunch together as a group, allowing me to make close bonds with the people I knew nothing about before the program, and I would have never met otherwise.

All in all, this experience is something hard to describe in just words. I think truly witnessing these moments changed my outlook on my values in learning language and culture. I also think from this experience I have a much better idea of what I want my future to look like: now considering living in France as a high possibility on my list.

Ava Scanlon
University of Kansas, Lawrence
St. Paul, Minnesota

CIEE-Rennes Summer Intensive French Language 2025