While I love the french cuisine, my favorite part of my study abroad experience thus far surpasses even the best cheeses. Living with a host family has been a unique gift filled with insight and comfort as I discover the french university system.
One of the most defining characteristics of my french family is their catholicism — something that made my catholic parents in Iowa feel more comfortable just as Georgetown’s catholic identity did when I left home three years ago. However, after talking to my the other Georgetown students here in Strasbourg, it has become fairly clear that while France is an officially secular country, catholicism still holds a special place in the hearts of many families here. My host family all go to mass together on Sunday as well as other holy days of obligation – such as Toussaint (All Saint’s Day) which just happened Tuesday. For a holiday that the US barely acknowledges, the recognition of Toussaint closed down most of Strasbourg for the day.
As the Catholics are famously known for, my family is a large one. However, only one child is still at home. They have four students in college both in France and in the US and one son in a boarding High School in Paris. My only companion most days is the 17 year-old med student who studies so often that she might even put Georgetown Students to shame. The way the French medical school system works is that all students may enter the first year and then are weeded by the end of one academic year, making this one of the most stressful times in her academic career. Med school is also not reserved to graduate studies, but can be begun immediately following the baccalaureate.
She is following in the footsteps of her father, an oncologist at the local hospital. He works a great deal and often doesn’t come home until after 8. For this reason, dinner is typically taken in rounds with the mother and daughter eating early around 7:30 and the father eating after 8 or 9. I switch which shift I join depending on when I get home from classes.
For a french family, 7:30 is a very early dinner. Most of the other students in Strasbourg eat around 9. On a couple of rare occasions when I have joined my host family for a weekend meal when one of their older children comes home, we have also eaten later, around 8:30.
I am perhaps closest to my host mother, she is a stay at home mother who has an endless amount of patience for my limited french vocabulary. She does most of the cooking and cleaning in the home but both parents very clearly enjoy spending time with their children. When dinner is taken all together, it has become abundantly clear to me that this is a family that loves science and debate. Everything from using Periodic Table mugs as props in their debates to discussing the difference between anagrams and acronymes in Harry Potter, I simply love to listen to them. I am truly thankful that Georgetown found me a family that values intellectual debate as it helps me to feel more at home while away from the Hilltop.
