Weekend Away

by Olivia Boggiano-Peterson

Lake Saint-Ferréol

This past weekend I went on a trip sponsored by the University of Toulouse’s center for foreign exchange students. The program is called EIMA because (as I have learned in my three weeks here) the French love acronyms. Unfortunately, I cannot recall what exactly EIMA stands for but that doesn’t matter because I had an amazing time and met so many interesting people from all over the world. About one-hundred students went on the trip to lake Saint-Ferréol, which is near the town of Revel about an hour from Toulouse. We left Saturday morning and arrived at the lake just in time for a picnic on the lake’s beach. It was quite cold and grey out and the beach was much more rock than sand but nevertheless, we all sat down and enjoyed our packed lunches. Lisa (another Dickinson student) was somehow the only person out of one-hundred who had brought a knife so people kept coming up and asking to borrow it. In particular, a German girl had brought a whole avocado and cantaloupe for her lunch but had no way to open them so she came over to use the knife and we had a pleasant conversation about the relative expensiveness of avocados in different countries.

After the picnic we realized that there were no activities planned for the rest of the day and that we were expected to spend time on the beach and sunbathe, which as I said before, was impossible because of the gloomy weather. This realization actually helped us bond with a group of English students because they were just as frustrated and confused by the lack of structure (which the French seem to be quite used to) as we were. Later we went inside and played a name game where people introduced themselves and said something that they liked to do – it was the sort of thing that is painfully awkward to the point that everyone laughs continuously.

By far the best part of the weekend was the soirée Saturday night. I still haven’t gotten used to the idea of alcohol (usually wine) being served at university events but then again, every time we explained to other students that the drinking age is twenty-one in the U.S. they laughed outright. The soiree ended up being an enormous dance party (which I’m happy to say we helped start) and lasted far into the night. Sunday proved to be much nicer and although everyone was exhausted, we spent time on the beach and floated around in paddleboats and kayaks. It was still too cold for me but tons of people (mainly Canadians and Northern Europeans) put on bathing suits and laid in the sun. It was so much fun to be around students from all over the world and I felt reassured learning that other students are just as baffled by the French university system and nervous about starting classes as I am.