Thahitun Marium

BONJOUR TOUT LE MONDE! (‘Hello Everyone!' in French)
My name is Thahitun Mariam, class of 2012. I live in New York City, but I am originally from Bangladesh. I am doing a multi-field major (International Relations), which is a combination of Government and Global Studies courses, also with minors in French and European Studies.

I had the brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel abroad to three different countries during the spring semester of 2009. St. Lawrence University has provided me with what I love to do best (travel) during my first year of college. I participated in SLU's longest running study abroad program, the "Global Francophone Cultures" which starts off in Quebec, Canada, makes its way to Rouen, France, and then spends seven to ten days in Dakar, Senegal towards the end of April, and then back to Rouen for two more weeks. Truly, for me- it was just a magnificent (and might I also add, VERY SHORT) four months spent in these countries!

While I was abroad studying in France, I also had the opportunity to travel to Spain, Italy, and the U.K. so imagine that--- six countries in a matter of 4 months! Europe is such an open environment and I really loved the way the Global Francophone Cultures program was structured. I had two years of previous French classes from High School, but one of my friends who went on the program with me only had one fall semester of French from SLU. She was quite alright and she learned quickly. You live with host families, in a smaller city than Paris, so it's easy to learn the language and practice it at all intervals of the day. I would go to buy baguettes for lunch at "l'epicerie," which is the sandwich shop, and even there, I was able to strike up a conversation after a month of being in France.

A memorable experience from the whole trip was my week in Senegal. I loved Quebec, and I adored Rouen, but once arriving in Dakar, Senegal where the sun greeted me with its warmth, I was ecstatic! Quebec was terribly freezing since the program begins there in January, and then in Rouen it was also a bit chilly but they do not have snow (YAY such a different place from SLU where it starts snowing in OCTOBER sometimes), but Senegal was just beautiful! Senegalese people are so hospitable because they believe in ‘teranga' which means hospitality in their second official language, Wolof, (French is the first). Senegalese speak French, but they speak very informally and with a little bit of an accent. I love shopping in Senegal and being hustled by the shop keepers just because we came from outside. Oh yes- if you do participate in this program, do not let them trick you! They triple the price of an object when seeing a foreigner.

I hope everyone will be considering this program because I sure had a blast! Feel free to stop by the CIIS office or email me (tmari08@stlawu.edu) if you want to chit-chat sometime!