Making Friends Quick: With CIEE! 

The start of my term staying in Rennes has been an absolute blast. With every day comes a new adventure, and I owe that in no small part to the amazing people I’ve met through CIEE. As soon as I arrived, I knew I was going to enjoy spending my days with the people in my program. Consisting of 14 people I’ve never met before (despite the fact two of them go to my school!), it’s been enlightening and fun to learn about and spend time with these people.

The first friend I made in Rennes was Cece from Union College, my home university. Despite our small size and campus, Cece and I had never met before, and we contacted each other on the plane and met in Paris airport. While waiting for our flight to Rennes, we chatted about our summers and ourselves, and despite our different interests and backgrounds, we enjoyed each other’s company in the foreign airport.

After arriving in Rennes and picking up our bags, Cece and I walked out to greet our program director standing with multiple students. Cece departed with her host mom while four other students and I walked to the van waiting outside. The van was packed, with me and another boy (Dylan) sitting facing three girls (Aria, Cassie, and Sophia). All of them were from Furman University in South Carolina and had known each other through their French department. Even though these people had all met before and had some history together, I felt right at home driving through a brand new city in a brand new country with brand new people, because we were all going through this new experience together.

The next day, our entire CIEE group had lunch together with our three directors, where I wound up sitting next to Cece, Margot, Sophia, Cassie, and Mary. After expressing our desire to travel as much as possible during our stay, we organized a weekend trip to Paris for two weeks later. The weeks came and went, bringing lots of adventures around Rennes (including a trip to the local IKEA and lots of delicious lunches in Centre-Ville), but the trip to Paris came quickly. After a 1h30m train ride, we checked into our hostel and had lunch at a local cafe. We then departed to explore Paris, playing line games while waiting outside Notre Dame, taking silly photos at the Louvre and having a picnic at the Eiffel Tower, all in one day. On day two, we went to the Musée Rodin, Montmartre / Sacré-Coeur, and had ANOTHER picnic at the Eiffel Tower. Of course these were all fun activities, but it would not have been nearly the same if it wasn’t with people I loved to be around.

Since the beginning of the program, I’ve become good friends with everyone in my CIEE group. I love referencing inside jokes with Mary and Sophia, talking about culture (both foreign and domestic) with Dylan and Aria, and playfully bantering with Cassie and Cece. Discovering Rennes nightlife with Joseph and Margot, talking about video games with Arkadia and Daniel, and catching up with Alex, Oliver, and Li Fu.

Through our shared experience of being immersed in a language we’ve all learned but never perfected, in a country we’ve all dreamed of living in, I’m sure that by the end of our four months together, we’ll be lifelong friends. I’m so grateful to CIEE and Union College for giving me this opportunity, and I’m super excited for what’s to come during my time in Rennes.

Eric Greenberg 

Union College

CIEE-Rennes Liberal Arts Language Immersion Fall 2026