Maggie Grega's term abroad
at the Centre International Des Études Françaises (CIDEF)
in the historic city of Angers got off to a bumpy start when introductory
emails between her and her host family went astray, causing both
parties to feel a bit estranged at the outset. "To this day,
I think there is something fishy about the Internet connection between
America and my host family's house," Grega says.
Grega's early experiences at CIDEF were also somewhat confounding. The first
time she tried using the school's computer lab, she was dismayed to find that
although the keyboard looked familiar, the letters were in different places.
Switching the keyboard to an American-style setup wasn't easy for her, so she
ultimately left the French keyboard settings alone and looked at the keys steadily
while typing. "It was an adjustment, but I got pretty used to it. I think
it may have made my typing even worse once I got back to the States though!" she
laughs.
IT didn't play as big a part in her studies at CIDEF as she might have expected. "It
was a lot more like high school in that sense because I feel like here at the
UO almost every class has a technological component, whether it be Blackboard
or online course reading or even the necessity of emails from professors. None
of that was part of life in France." What was a part of life in Angers was
a wi-fi (pronounced "wee-fee") café, where for the price of
a latte students could connect to a wireless network, and Grega occasionally
went there with friends.
Aside from emailing friends and family back home, Grega's only other venture
into Internet communications was to use DuckWeb to register for classes before
leaving France, a process she describes as "a bit of a challenge" because
of the time difference. Since returning to the U.S., Grega has kept up with her
French by using "a really cool website with all kinds of media and the best
French dictionary online I have found yet called TV5.org." She was so inspired
by her two and a half months in Angers that she now works as an Oversees Study
Peer Assistant in the Office of International Programs, promoting study abroad
to prospective students. Studying abroad has given her a taste for travel and
international outreach, and she hopes to join the Peace Corps when she graduates
this spring.
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