{"id":4575,"date":"2019-07-03T15:05:33","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T20:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/?p=4575"},"modified":"2019-07-03T15:06:44","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T20:06:44","slug":"finding-home-4714-miles-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/2019\/07\/03\/finding-home-4714-miles-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Home 4,714 Miles Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tell me about your hometown.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monistrol-sur-Loire is a big city. Well, for me, it\u2019s big. Here, it\u2019s kind of small. I\u2019m from a super tiny village near there, and I mean,\u00a0village<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 no city council: just houses, hills and cows. I was born in the big city, and I go to school there, but it\u2019s about 30 minutes away from\u00a0home<\/em>. For me, St. Joseph<\/a> is huge.<\/p>\n

How did you go about choosing Western?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now, I am in an exchange program. So basically my school narrows down every possible school that has my same major, and Missouri Western<\/a> was the only choice for my major if I wanted to come to America. I could have gone to Europe or somewhere else, but I knew I really wanted to go to the U.S.<\/p>\n

Why did you know you wanted to come to the U.S.?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the U.S.; I don\u2019t know why, but I\u2019ve always wanted to come here. And now that I\u2019m here, I don\u2019t want to go home. I want to stay here. It\u2019s way more open and exciting. It\u2019s not all about rules.<\/p>\n

Did you always want to do an exchange program?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe since I was 12. I was like, \u2018I want to live in the U.S. someday. I don\u2019t know how. I don\u2019t know when, but I want to go there.\u2019 But I was never really planning on it being with school. I was just planning on moving here after I graduated. Everything just ended up working out with the exchange program. I also knew that I didn\u2019t want a big town. I\u2019m from a really small community, so I knew I wouldn\u2019t like somewhere like Miami or New York City. Missouri is perfect.<\/p>\n

How did you prepare to come to Western?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I made sure before I left that I was into it. I wanted to make sure that I knew what to expect. For me, it\u2019s the worst if I am expecting something and it is the complete opposite. I also came here completely on my own. I was Googling and looking at maps. Funny story \u2014 I had never taken a plane alone before. I usually travel with friends or family, but this was the first time on my own.<\/p>\n

What were your expectations of Western or the U.S.?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have always been attracted to the U.S., but there are some things that I discovered after I came here \u2014 things that are different but in a good way. The French culture is very individualistic. We have personal space, and we definitely don\u2019t overlap our personal and private lives. In America, everything is mixed together, and everything is super close. For me, it\u2019s good, though. The U.S. is more based on being a community. When I go home, I think I might cry, because for me, it\u2019s sad to think about not living like this.<\/p>\n

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What are the main differences that you see between French and American culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n

French culture has a lot of rules. French people also get offended so easily. American people rarely get upset. It\u2019s so hard to make Americans angry about anything. I feel like I am [American]. France will always be home for me, but I feel closer to American culture. I feel more myself here.<\/p>\n

What are your future plans?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I will be graduating right when I go home this May, and I am planning on coming back to Missouri Western for my master\u2019s degree. I don\u2019t want to go back home. I love it here. I feel so comfortable, so I am hoping that everything will work out. I want to work and live here. I see myself staying in the United States.<\/p>\n

Tell me about being an international student.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Missouri Western has a lot of international students<\/a>. It\u2019s great, but I really wasn\u2019t expecting it. So since I was always with international people, I always had help. I never had to struggle on my own. One struggle though was the culture shock. I didn\u2019t know how to behave at first, but after breaking the ice, it was fine. I like this school, because it\u2019s small but not too small. I am used to the accent and the pace now. I really love it here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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Tell me about your hometown. Monistrol-sur-Loire is a big city. Well, for me, it\u2019s big. Here, it\u2019s kind of small. I\u2019m from a super tiny village near there, and I mean,\u00a0village\u00a0\u2014 no city council: just houses, hills and cows. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":4576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[171],"tags":[658,657,129,100],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4577,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4575\/revisions\/4577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/yearbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}