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Show ,11 Europe Was Our Classroom A v . r" - 11 Two young students tell about their experiences educational and personalattending programs sponsored by the American Institute for Foreign Study Editors' Note: Accompanied by 73,000 U.S. high-schostudents last summer traveled to Europe, Asia, and Africa sight-seein- g and working at 40 different schools and universities. The American Institute for Foreign Stud, founded in 1 964 to encourage the understanding of foreign countries by young Americans, sponsored the programs. AIFS is staffed by people from many nations and presently reaches into 10 countries. What the teen-ageenjoyed most and how much they gleaned from their summer venture are reflected here in the" recollections of both Anne Gray of Meridian, Miss., and Michael V. Seeley of Lansing, Mich., just two of the many thousands. teacher-chaperon- s, ol six-we- rs mi 'c 3 Anne ijray (Anne, 17, is the daughter of an Episcopal priest in Meridian, Miss.) My English teacher, Mrs. Anne Sanford, became interested in AIFS three years ago. Our group last summer was her third. I never had been abroad before and never expected to be able to go that time. My older brother (I also have a younger one and a younger sister ) should have had the first chance, but he was nice about it and said he'd rather go by himself later. Then there was the problem of money (including extras, the cost would come to about $1,000) and whether I was old enough to get the maximum benefit from such a trip. But my parents decided that this would be a legitimate use for some of the savings they had put aside for our education. And anyhow, I would receive credit in an elective at school. Since each chaperoned AIFS group had its choice of itinerary or foreign . "campus," as it was called, we chose the Contemporary Europe Campus two weeks each in London, Paris, and Rome, including weekend trips to other places. With a couple of hundred other students, my group flew to London in July by chartered jet. At our destination, Westf ield College, London, we took morning courses and spent the afternoons in such extracurricular activities as field trips, bicycle rides, and discussion groups. We had the evenings to ourselves. Our lecture topics in London and later in Paris were: comparative government, the modern arts and literature, sociology, economics, and foreign policy. We were divided into groups of about 30 and usually attended four lectures each weekday. After clasi we had time to ask questions. Our professors were natives of the country ; we had guest speakers, most were government officials. I enjoyed all that, but, of course, the things I remember best were the little individual incidents. One evening, for instance, a friend and I went to service at the church down the street from the college. Not only did the vicar greet us at the door and talk to us, but later from the pulpit, he invited us and everyone else to tea. The whole evening made my stay in London more meaningful because I had made personal contact with some ' natives" on my own. In Paris, a girl friend, Mary, and I made the mistake of being too nice to a couple of boys at a cafe. When they met us later at the Eiffel Tower, one of them asked Mary if she would be No. 6 on his list of foreigners whom he had kissed. Till then he had kissed Italian girls, Portuguese, British, Spanish, and French but, he plained, no Americans. He really gave com- her no choice. After he had gone, an elderly French couple, who had found the situation very amusing, asked Mary in broken English, "Didn't the French kiss good?" I enjoyed the Italians most of all. They were full of life and happiness. i ) : fin AIFS students hear lecture on art history end Italian in hilly Perugia, Italy, Our overnight guide to Naples entertained us with Italian songs. And our bus driver would break into tears whenever our guide sang sentimental songs. When we asked the guide to sing "Sorrento" on our way there, the driver became so carried away that he missed the turn to Sorrento. I think it was better to see Europe for the first time as a student than as a tourist. This way I got a taste of each country's personality and learned many things about it. By Michael V. Seeley (His father works for the Eaton, Mich., farm bureau. He has two brothers and two sisters.) Our group was organized by Mrs. Helen Hovis, who teaches art at the Eaton Rapid high school, where I went before going on to Community College in Lansing. There were 14 of us, nine girls and five boys. To collect money for the trip, the other students sold stationery and had cake sales and dances. I paid my way by working as a grocery clerk. We picked the art history and course. This meant that, for a except couple of days in London and Paris, we spent most of our time in hilly Perugia, Italy, where we had morning studies at the University for Strangers. This used to be a palace, whose Etruscan arch was built in the B.C. The girls stayed in a Catholic residence; the boys with private families, all selected by AIFS. Italian-la- nguage fifth-centu- ry At the University, we met some students from Germany, Sweden, and Greece. I didn't get to know them very well, but it was interesting to find in that the habits of teen-ageEurope are similar to ours. Meeting students from all over the U.S. was rewarding and a real experience. You learned how they felt about different questions and the way things are done in their cities. The high point of the trip for me was our visit to Siena for the Palio, a horse race without saddle. It lasts three minutes. Palio is held twice a year in a square in the center of the city. The track is a brick road, covered with packed earth. Horses, representing 10 of the 17 different organizations in the city, compete. Before the race, members of the organization, dressed in traditional costumes, parade. After the race is over, the winner is blessed at the cathedral. Then a celebration begins, with the winning horse the celebrity. Some other observations : People in most of the countries we visited are friendly, except in rs France, where, I thought, they are very snobbish. All the people of Italy seem to work, no matter what age; some sweep the streets daily with long, tough-bristle- d brooms. European drivers are brave would never drive the way they do. I & AIFS Information For more information on AIFS summer-schoprograms in Europe and college students, for write to: The American Institute for ol high-scho- ol Foreign Study, Dept. FW, 102 Greenwich Are., Greenwich, Conn. 06830. Family Weekly, November 3, 1969 11 |