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Lucie Commeret Marsden '71

Academics / Departments & Programs / French / Student Experience / Interim Abroad 50th Anniversary

Last New Year’s Eve, I shared with friends that exactly fifty years ago, I was in Paris, on the Champs Elysées celebrating New Years Eve. I was a 17 year old kid from New Jersey, a Calvin freshman, on the first interim abroad offered in the new 4-1-4 curriculum. Although technically only upperclassmen were supposed to be eligible, they needed more warm bodies and cold cash to make the trip a go. So they allowed three freshmen in the group. I took all the money I had in the world, and signed up.

In those days, the airline of choice for people with limited resources was Icelandic Air. So our group can claim we’ve also been to Iceland... for about three hours. We landed in the middle of the night, December 28, and got off the plane while it refueled. All I remember about Reykjavík was the horizontal snow we walked through to get to the terminal.

By New Year’s Eve, we were safely housed in Paris for a week before we left for Montpellier. Being the eager, naïve, fearless freshme we were, we went over to the Arc de Triomphe where a huge party was taking place. Everyone was having a good time, except the senior minder put in charge of us Freshmen. As we hugged and kissed our way up and down the street at midnight, she pleaded ine ectively for us to stop and go back to the hotel. But we would have none of it and had a most exciting time. Years later I was told by Professor Arthur Otten, who very ably led us on this trip of discovery, that it might have been that we freshman got more out of the whole abroad experience than anyone else in the group precisely because we were young, eager, naïve and fearless.

Thea Berkhout, another freshman, and I went to my first live opera ever in Paris. We were up in the very top tier, called the angel seats, for 10 francs, about $2.00. We went to the Louvre and the Jeu de Paume (the Impressionist museum). We bought French police capes right o the backs of gendarmes, who were changing over to traditional jackets. (Again for about $2.00.) I wore that cape around Calvin for the next two years.

In Montpellier we went to the open air markets and saw the Mediterranean Sea. We went to our class at the university, which was taught by an old professor who, after drinking his lunch, mumbled his lectures while seated. But the city was beautiful, the cafés wonderful, and the people were quite nice to us considering they were French and we were not. (I’m half French, so I can say this about my people.)

In all, it was a marvelous experience. And to think how many abroad programs there are now is amazing. We must have set a very good precedent. So you’re welcome.

Remembering the first Calvin Interim Abroad

This story is one of three reflections by Calvin graduates about their experiences on the first Calvin Interim Abroad. Read the other accounts:

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