France: Will Gittens (Local interactions)

When you study abroad you have to get used to living in a new place. All of a sudden, you have new routines and ways to go about your day. In doing so, you begin to run into people along the way. Sometimes these are the same in the boulangerie or the pharmacy or the grocery store. Other times they are just random people that you happen to share a moment with.

One of my most memorable interactions while I was living abroad in Paris came on a day when I went to the Tuileries Garden just in front of Le Louvre. It was a beautiful day and I decided that in between my classes I would sit in the garden and take it all in. The city, the weather, and the people around me. In doing so, I unknowingly sat next to an older French couple who seemed to be trying to do the same thing I was, enjoying a sunny day. Out of the blue, we began to chat and discuss the weather, the flowers beginning to bloom, and the feeling of spring right around the corner. During the course of this conversation, never once did they ask me where I was from or what I was doing in Paris despite me pretty clearly being an American. Instead, they just wanted to casually talk and enjoy a monument on a beautiful day. At the end of my study abroad experience, it is moments like these that end up standing out the most. The little ones that were not planned and just happened.

 

Will Gittens

Hometown: Racine, Wisconsin

Major: BA in Economics and BA in Political Science

Program: UW in Paris