It felt unreal to me when I realized 2 weeks of my internship already went by. I’ve finished over half of the analyses for my project and after I asked my supervisor for feedback, he said the project was advancing at a good pace. It did not stop me from questioning everything and comparing myself…
Tag: Paris
One Week Back
I’d been home for a week when I met up with two other Pitt students from the FAME group in Pittsburgh. It was summer, so we met in the city rather than on campus. Within about ten minutes, all three of us had said the same thing, none of us prompted by the others: the…
They Locked Us In and Took Away the Delivery Apps
ENSEACK was my fourth hackathon and the first one I couldn’t leave. At the three I’d done in Montreal and in the US, you could go home at two in the morning, or order food, or at least walk somewhere. At ENSEA you were locked in for nineteen hours. Nobody had warned us to bring…
Learning My First Language Again
It was lunchtime on a Tuesday in the student lounge at ENSEA, three weeks into the semester. Someone asked what I thought about young graduates struggling to find work. It isn’t a hard question, and I had plenty to say about it. But the sentence was assembling itself in the wrong language, and what came…
Why France
I’ve moved countries three times, and each move changed which language I lived in. I was born in the Republic of Benin, a small country in West Africa, and schooled in French there through ninth grade. In tenth grade, I switched to a Nigerian school, where the curriculum was in English. In 2018, I left…
Reflecting on My Time in Paris
As I begin my eight hour flight back to America, I decided that there was no better way to kill time than to complete my final blog post entry! With all of this time ahead of me, I have had the chance to reflect on my time abroad and everything that I have experienced in…
Thinking and living like a Parisian
Coucou, hello! I have been in Paris for a bit over a month now. Though I have experienced so much, it feels like time has went by incredibly fast. I’ve grown quite a bit from the first day I landed in Paris and felt somewhat clumsy using the metro or weighing produce for groceries. I…
Finding Community in Paris
One of the reasons why I chose to study in France is because it is part of my heritage. My mother was born in northern France, and was the only member of her family to immigrate to the United States. She rebuilt her life in America while the rest of her family remained in France….
Communicating in Paris
Throughout my time in Paris, I have noticed several differences of communication styles compared to what I am accustomed to in America. Perhaps the most notable difference is the directness of conversation. During my first week here, this communication style initially struck me as rude. The nature of many interactions were straightforward, and it felt…
Comparing Paris to Pittsburgh
Since my arrival, I have experienced numerous differences within the culture and ways of life here. It is interesting to observe the infinite aspects that are so fundamental to the day to day customs in Paris, as they differ greatly from the lifestyle I am used to back in America. Take, for instance, the concept…