Written by Aden Stringfellow, J-1 Exchange Student
Hello everyone!
My name is Aden and I’m an exchange student from Paris, France. I arrived in January and even though my dad is American, I was surprised how different living in the United States is from France. First of all I had to get used to all the tiny life differences; for example the 12-hour clock—saying 2:30 PM instead of 14h30—was a bit confusing at first ! Same things with the degrees; I remember hearing someone say “It’s 57 degrees outside” and being like “Are we going to die” ?? Because 57 degrees Celsius is 134.6 degrees Fahrenheit…
Then I had to get used to the fact that I’m still a “minor” here, being 20 years old. In France, when you turn 18 you have the right to do almost anything you want, so imagine my surprise when I realized that I couldn’t have a nice glass of wine in a bar, especially when my student job was to be a barmaid in Paris!
Something fun in the US is small talk; like if you meet someone in the elevator it’s normal to say Hi and talk about something like the weather or your outfit, whereas in Paris you would probably be considered crazy if you did that. You can also dress for class however you like! Sweatpants, ripped jeans, you can even keep your cap on; in my home business school you would have been sent home to change because you have to dress “professionally” and we even have to wear a shirt with a blazer jacket on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It’s also pretty normal to go to class with pimple patches on and no makeup which is really nice. I feel like people are way less judgmental here and that you can easily express yourself through the way you dress.
At first, I was a little bit anxious about sleeping in a dorm because I didn’t have brothers and sisters and I had my own apartment in Paris, so I wasn’t used to sharing a room, but I actually really enjoy it now. I have a super nice roommate so it’s like having a sleepover with your best friend every night ! And we never fight for the bathroom because we never start class at the same time.
Speaking of classes, the learning system is overall really different. In my Business School in France, we have classes from Monday to Friday from 8 am to 7 pm, with a one or two hour lunch break to go to a café or restaurant. We work a lot during class and do a lot of group projects but never really have any homework, whereas here you learn the lesson in class and then have a lot of assignments to do at home. Also at my home college, you choose a major and then you’re in a class with the same people for every course so it’s very easy to make friends, whereas here, you sign up for different classes within your major, so you are with different people in every class.
I was also fascinated by the fraternities and sororities! In my head it was a myth you only see in movies, so I was so excited the first time I went to a frat party. The fact that they share a house together is crazy!! I was in the “Bureau des élèves” in my school which would sort of correspond to a fraternity or sorority. The “Bureau des élèves” is an association in every college in France, where some students have to create their own association, then run campaigns—just like in a presidential election—to determine the winning team, that the students pay with their own money, and in general it’s at least a thousand euros per person (= $ 1 034,70) , and when one team wins their term is a year long during which they have to organize various parties for the school, a weekend, a ski trip and many more things. I was part of a Bureau des élèves where we were 14, and my role was to contact nightclubs to rent them and organize every detail of the parties. So, I was very interested in the operations/structure of the fraternities and sororities.
In terms of food, the dining hall is really good! We don’t really have a dining hall in French colleges because most people go to restaurants during lunch, but we had some in middle school and high school and it was so different. Here you have the choice between multiple meals, and there are even vegan options and an ice cream machine ?! In high school I hated eating lunch at school because it wasn’t really good, and you didn’t have a lot of options, so it was a good surprise !
I thought Paris was an expensive city but the cost of living here is really expensive! So it’s overall cheaper to eat at the dining hall than to do some grocery shopping every day. It’s definitely impossible to eat every day at a restaurant in San Francisco, which makes it even more enjoyable when you do. But you can take public transportation with your student ID for free!! That’s a game changer when you want to have a coffee downtown or just if you want to visit the city.