Study Abroad - Suzanne o'brien

This is the University of Rochester. I wouldn't have traded this year abroad for anything. You name it, we just had so many different sorts of mendbending times that have affected me in my personal life and had to have affected me in my professional life. Just because of the way they shaped what I became. 'This is November. We met as we had planned beforehand Tom and his friend, also from Texas, Dennis. They had asked if we'd like to go to Les Halles after the concert. It was just midnight, and the market was much later, so we had coffee, then walked over. At 1:30 there was still no activity, so we went into Le Clair de Lune and had coffee. Not a tourist around. The place was filled with huge, dirty workman laughing and joking. A guitarist and amazing violinist played and sang even 'Oh Susannah' in French.' One of the most amazing differences between then and now is just in the ways we communicate. We're so used to emailing and text messaging and phoning -- none of that existed. You could telephone, but it was so expensive, that I never phoned my parents. from October through May. The main way of communicating was by letter. And I got in the habit early, actually, on board the ship, I got in the habit early of writing to my parents every few days I would catch them up on everything that I had done. Almost everything that I had done. In great detail. I knew that they would be interested, they were tremendously supportive of me. I was quite amazed years later to find out that my mother had kept my letters. She gave them back to me at some point. And since the ink was fading, at some period after my husband passed away I was looking for some nice project that would kind of keep me moving ahead, and I read through those letters and typed them up. And now they're legible. Which is a good thing, I guess. And they're great fun for me to re-read and others in my family have reread them. Because they are detailed, and they do show that very different time. 'At about 4, we got pâté sandwiches and began to walk around. The streets for blocks around were filled with huge piles of cauliflower, cabbages, turnips, lettuce, apple crates, carrots. The butchers alongs the sides had vats of livers, hearts, and tables covered with hogsheads. Quite an experiences. Everywhere, there were little carts, trucks, people buying and selling wholesale. So much activity, and all while the city sleeps.' They show me, and how different and yet how much the same I was. This is the University of Rochester.