Semester Abroad-ing Madison aka Adulting French Camp

I first traveled to France in high school and learned a lot from the experience, but my first major dose of travel, independence and MAJOR adulting occurred a few years later as an undergrad when I did the Semester Abroad program through the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

This unique program asks students to propose a sizable research project, make preliminary connections to primary sources or individuals in the semester before leaving, and then carry out the research ON THEIR OWN while in Europe in the fall. The group, students from any major you can think of like agriculture, business, marketing, Spanish, or French, travel to Paris with a few faculty members. They spend a week getting acclimated to the time difference, the use of public transportation, and some of the larger cultural differences before embarking BY THEMSELVES to the sites where they will conduct their research. They are totally self-sufficient. Their lodging, travel, eating, health and overall survival and completely their responsibility. They do interviews, they take photos, they explore archives and artifacts, they do what they need to do to learn about the topic from a perspective that is unavailable in any book, article or website. Upon returning home at the end of the semester, students write a LONG paper summarizing their findings on the topic. They receive a full semester of college credit for the experience.

Beyond the knowledge of the chosen topic, the format that puts the student entirely in charge of their survival is invaluable for developing social, problem-solving and time management skills. You learn how to problem-solve and be resourceful as well as flexible.

All of these skills are serving me well this week in Madison, WI where my oldest daughter is doing a French day camp every day from 9am-1pm. This is far enough away from our house that my time is better spent in Madison than it is driving back and forth.

So, I've treated this as my own sort of French camp by Semester Abroad-ing Madison this week.
Among the ways this feels like SA:

• speaking French (real French with real native speakers, not just "teacher" French)
• eating French foods (macarons, quiche, croissant aux amandes, Orangina, café crème)
• eating and drinking some of the above in cafés over a good book or other task

• coping with Bretagne/Loire-Atlantique-esque weather (il pleut, il y a du soleil, du coup il pleut encore, ah non, voilà le soleil...)
• carrying my bitch sack everywhere (term coined on SA by a dear friend who needed a word for the kind of super-useful but somewhat polished daypack you need when traveling, something that holds a book, notebook, pen, etc, but also water, camera, umbrella, etc because you never know what you'll need while you're out exploring your destination and can't go back to the youth hostel yet...or in my case...don't want to schlep back to the car in the parking garage)
• navigating a (somewhat) urban landscape. Il faut s'orienter, marcher partout, et profiter des petits plaisirs. 

• problem-solving challenges like traffic jams due to broken water mains that close down the streets in the neighborhood you're going to but there are lots of one ways and you don't know the area that well and your small child is in the back seat and...(well, I didn't have to worry about THAT variable back in my UWRF SA days.)

In short, I'm thoroughly enjoying my own small taste of "French camp for adults" and I'm gathering lots of ideas for a mini field trip to Madison for my French students.