Connecting the Pack

Abdullah Najjar 0:00
All right, welcome everybody to another episode of connecting the pack. Today I'm joined by two French students who are currently studying in at NC State University. First we have a romaine Guibert. Is that is that the right way? Yes. So Romaine is studied in France, as well as South Africa, but now is she's doing a semester, or perhaps a year, full academic year here at NC State. In addition to remain we have Lena, Lena Simon, or Simone, I guess in French. So Lina had a similar experience. She studied in France for a while, then she moved to South Africa. And now she is studying at NC State University as part of the Schema program. Without further ado, ladies, welcome to the studio.

Lena Simon 0:56
Thank you.

Abdullah Najjar 0:57
So it's interesting that you both experienced something similar in a way you you spent some time in France, then move to South Africa. And now you're in Raleigh. What a mobility period. Yeah, that's Yeah. So what would you say is the kind of motivates you both to to go to South Africa to pursue perhaps a semester or an academic year and then show up here to the United States? I'm sure you had different reasons. Even though your experiences were somewhat similar, I'm sure there's a little bit of nuance involved. So maybe we can start with you, Lena? How did that start?

Lena Simon 1:39
To be honest, it was a bit like mandatory for the schema program to go abroad. Okay. So yes, as you said, we have different reasons for going abroad. Romana, and I, we didn't know each other before going to South Africa. And we decided to go there, because it's really beautiful. And schema has a campus there. So that was the main reason. And then we decided to move to the United States to improve our English and to discover a new culture. A very different from France and South Africa. So

Abdullah Najjar 2:10
yeah. Interesting. Is that, is that something that resonates with you Romane?

Romane Guibert 2:14
Yeah, completely. But I have a quite different experience. Because at the beginning, I wasn't supposed to go to South Africa. I had been accepted in Guadalajara in Mexico, Mexico. And I changed my mind, like, quite rapidly, quite quickly. And I changed my mind to go to South Africa, because it was a campus there was more people. And as a first experience, I felt like it was more secure for me to go there. And I just had some friends that were there. Like my roommate. And then yes, we came to Raleigh. We were supposed to do only one semester, only the fourth semester. And we enjoyed it. So we both decided to, to stay here for one more semester. And finish our studies here. So

Lena Simon 3:06
you technically did not know each other prior to South Africa. You only knew each other when you went to South Africa.

Romane Guibert 3:14
We knew each other. But we were not friends. We begin to be really, really good friends in South Africa.

Abdullah Najjar 3:20
Oh, and how did that start?

Lena Simon 3:23
Well, pretty easily because we had the same house. So we just shared a lot of moments together. And we realized that we were a lot more friends than we thought. So yeah, that was mainly it. And I was not supposed to go to Raleigh and I became close with Romaine and her roommates, and they convinced me to come here. And I liked it a lot. So I decided to stay with her. Wow,

Abdullah Najjar 3:47
that's amazing. I mean, the fact that you found yourself sharing so many things in common in South Africa that you probably didn't know about before. Africa. What where? Where did where? Exactly. You go in South Africa in Johannesburg?

Romane Guibert 4:02
No, it was Stellenbosch city. Its one hour from Cape Cape Town,

Abdullah Najjar 4:07
Cape Town. Okay. Wow. In the west, yeah. And were you being taught in French at that time?

Romane Guibert 4:13
No. English? Oh, yeah.

Abdullah Najjar 4:15
So because it surprised me when you said you want to show up to the states to improve the English even though even in France and not in France? Sorry, South Africa. You were being taught in English?

Lena Simon 4:24
Yeah, we would throw the English in many people's spoke English there. But we really wanted to have like the American way of teaching and way of learning English. Because we had like courses in English for we've been having courses in English for I think three years now. Even in France. Yeah. Wow. But we wanted to have like the American way of teaching and way of speaking so

Abdullah Najjar 4:49
nice. So when in South Africa, you both spent a year or semester No, it's just a semester

Romane Guibert 4:59
that's far The idea to come to America after because one semester is quite short. And to learn English and practice it and have it anchored, it was beneficial for us to go to the United States after, right?

Abdullah Najjar 5:15
What did you both? Like most about South Africa? We can start with Romane?

Romane Guibert 5:21
Oh my God, that's such a hard question because there was a lot of things that we liked. I think in Stellenbosch, we were surrounded by mountains. And so it was such a beautiful landscape. So yeah, the landscape in South Africa, we have done a lot of trips, Safari, I have such pretty memories. And with friends, so

Abdullah Najjar 5:42
Wow, that so you probably say the same thing. Lina. Right. Yeah,

Lena Simon 5:47
I would say the same. There are two things that I like to let first landscapes and the animals that we saw there. That was amazing. And the second one would be people there. South Africans, people are really, really nice. And I liked them a lot. So they that would be the two things that I think about.

Abdullah Najjar 6:06
Yeah. Did they have any funny stereotypes about the French? Yeah.

Romane Guibert 6:12
Yeah, they have a lot? And I think they're right. They talked to us about all the strikes that we've been going on in France. Right. That was the main stereotype they have, I think, Romane I don't

Lena Simon 6:25
know, if you have maybe one other concerning parties. We in France used to party quite late. And in South Africa, as here. clubs and bars used to close at two in the morning. And usually in France, it's more like five, six in the morning. So people know about

Abdullah Najjar 6:50
wild. That is so wild. That speaking, speaking of protests, and I don't want to digress a little bit. Did you guys ever partake in any of those strikes? Because that's something that I think not just South Africa that they probably say is like difficult in France? I think even other countries say Oh, yeah. And the French they usually go strike. But yeah, I that's very interesting. So you, you spent a month sorry, semester in South Africa. And during that time, did it feel Was that your first experiences outside of France? Yes. Oh, wow. That must have been hard.

Lena Simon 7:32
Yeah, it was difficult to leave the country and the family. But once we were there, like we discovered a lot of things. And we were well surrounded like I have I had a lot of friends. I met some people there. So yeah, that was reassuring for me.

Romane Guibert 7:46
Yeah. And for my part, as I went at the beginning us to go into Mexico or to Mexico. Yes. It was a little bit frightening for me. So going to South Africa was way more exciting, and I was looking forward or to it and being scared.

Abdullah Najjar 8:03
Yeah. What would you say the most? The most memorable experience that you've had in South Africa? It could be?

Romane Guibert 8:11
I think we have this? Oh, boy. Here we go.

Abdullah Najjar 8:15
And which one would probably take the leap and share this one?

Romane Guibert 8:20
We went to the Kruger Park. Yes, in South Africa. And it's somewhere you take your car and you do a safari in the park. And so you see a lot of animals we were there. Like with friends for five days, I think, yeah, five days, five days. And we saw a lot of animals. And it lasted long, and we had time to enjoy it. And to understand how we were lucky to be here. Oh, yeah, I was really lucky.

Lena Simon 8:53
That was the first time that I felt so lucky in my life. That was amazing. And we shared a lot of moments that I couldn't share with anyone else. I think, my future life. So yeah, that was amazing. And we discovered even on our self, some some things that we didn't think about, like it was really wild. And we were used to cities and everything's Yeah, that was interesting.

Abdullah Najjar 9:18
Wow. So you guys were embedded in the wilderness.

Lena Simon 9:21
Yeah. And it was quite exciting to try to see animals in the wild and we're like, oh, is this a lion or is this a rock? We never knew.

Abdullah Najjar 9:33
So, okay, we talked about what was memorable. What is shocking.

Romane Guibert 9:39
There are some things that were shocking, I think, difference between white people and black people because we were in a city where it was quite a region, quite European. And when we got out of first Stellenbosch, we could see like the real separation In between both populations, and it was a quite frightening Oh, wow.

Abdullah Najjar 10:05
Yeah. And you guys didn't know about that before your we

Lena Simon 10:09
were aware of it, but like to see the differences and everything. We're not used to it in France. And yeah, I think that was the main difference that shocked us. Especially in Stellenbosch because the as she said, this is a rich city. And so we didn't think about it. And then we went out to the airport or something. And we saw a lot of townships. So there were that was really sad for us, I think,

Abdullah Najjar 10:34
wow, I didn't know that there was that element of segregation in South Africa still, because the apartheid regime sort of ended like

Romane Guibert 10:45
but there is a always the leftovers, and it's quite visible to wow, yeah. It's comes to

Lena Simon 10:55
your I think about a second thing that shocked us. It was the load shadings. Yeah, it's called load shedding there is kind of a cat in electricity everyday you have it. It's like two hours or four hours, two or three times in a day, and you don't have electricity. So you have an app on your phone that tells you it's going to happen. And then you just do without electricity for a bit. So in during the summer, that was okay. Because we have the light and everything. But during the winter, it was kind. Yeah, hard.

Romane Guibert 11:29
It was harder to fall into a fridge because food the when you have four hours without electricity, it can go bad quite quickly.

Abdullah Najjar 11:37
That's right. That's right. Well, I've experienced some of that in Lebanon and Libya, the power cuts. So I'm sure maybe, yeah, I mean, that is something that would certainly shock a lot of people when I tell em, I've experienced cuts before, but I didn't I mean, was that across the entire country, South Africa, or just in your where you guys were studying? Oh, wow. So did you know about that? Before he came, or you came this? You went to South African realized? Well, there we go.

Romane Guibert 12:08
I think we might have some feedback before, but we didn't think it was that wide.

Lena Simon 12:13
And the year we went to South Africa, it was the worst. Four years. So we're not expecting such numerous gets?

Abdullah Najjar 12:25
What did you when you experienced those cuts? What did you usually do?

Romane Guibert 12:31
Our owners gave us some sunlight. Yeah, that we called on batteries. So we could use it. And mainly, we couldn't charge our batteries. So we did it like before we had to anticipate and mainly we were in the dark better doing our own light.

Lena Simon 12:51
And did you have generators by any chance or no notice

Romane Guibert 12:55
Not us when people have some of

Lena Simon 12:57
the people had but not as Oh, wow.

Abdullah Najjar 13:00
Even the the campus like Sckema campus, the campus had they had it. Okay. Well, that's good. That's awesome. Well, that must have been a new like, whole different moral than for you to.

Romane Guibert 13:13
That's great, too surprising.

Abdullah Najjar 13:14
So, so the transition to the sort of US. Did you feel like you sort of maybe miss that that time in South Africa? What did you well, how would the that feel to go, like from South Africa straight to the US without going to France, you know, returning? Oh, we

Romane Guibert 13:14
will return the during the summer in South Africa and Raleigh but for my part, I enjoyed a lot of South Africa. And I was a little bit scared to not enjoy that measure in the United States. But it was not the case at all. We made a lot of people good friends. The city, the culture, America, and I loved all of that. And that's why we we chose to stay one more semester. So i think is a good idea.

Abdullah Najjar 14:08
Interesting. So that would be similar to so I think Lina would probably say the same about how that sort of story unfolded about realizing that you wanted to extend your stay here.

Lena Simon 14:19
Yeah, exactly. We were aware that the United States wouldn't be the same as South Africa. So yeah, we tried not to compare when arriving here. And we were lucky. Like we made good friends. And we really like American culture. So yeah, that was not a problem. Once we arrived, but yeah, before we were quite scary of it.

Abdullah Najjar 14:40
Yeah. So would you say there are no power cuts here? Thank God. Yeah. But there must have been something about maybe the culture so far, may have? Well, probably not not much of a shock. It probably isn't much of a shock but maybe something that kind of stands out. What would you say it surprises Yeah. Yeah, so please, is that the front? Yeah. Okay, so let's start with the first surprise. Lina. Yeah,

Lena Simon 15:06
I think the main thing that I noticed when arriving here is that people are really welcoming. As they're really nice in the street and everything. They just come to you and say that you have a beautiful outfit, in the best people in the drivers just say hello. Usually in France, you say thank you when you leave the bus. So that was the main thing. I think people are really nice. And I really like American people. And

Romane Guibert 15:38
that's, and for my part, I will say, sports in the university sports. Yeah, we heard about it, obviously before, but seeing it like it's really a religion here. Universities battle all the year in different kinds of sports. Also, sports facilities. Everyone have access to Carmichael gym. And there is really a sports region here. And we like we like a lot like, we have been to so much sports representation. We've been to American football, volleyball, basketball, gymnastics. Wow. Yeah.

Abdullah Najjar 16:18
But that is a lot. I mean, compared to France, I would imagine it's mostly soccer in France. Right? And tennis. Okay. Oh, wow. Is there a heavy emphasis on tennis here or no.

Lena Simon 16:34
And I would ask you like, what is the main thing that surprised you? When when you came to the US? Because we have a different? Country of origin.

Abdullah Najjar 16:43
That's that's very much true. So I mean, I came here. First experience was two, I think two years ago. Well, it was in late 2021. So somewhat, slightly more than two years ago. But I think one of the things that really stood out was the food portions, like when you go to a restaurant, like everything is just x, large, big size. Even the small, like the small size for us is would be considered medium. You know, so, and probably that would explain a lot, why there's like a sort of obesity epidemic in the States. But that truly stood out to me. And I was also very much surprised when I would go to the dining hall. And I would notice that most of the students would have, you know, would eat pizza or burger for lunch or whatever. And it's like, there is a some somewhat of a lack of understanding of nutritional value, and what is proper nutrition and things of that nature. So those things were truly to me, because I'm not used to eating like a pizza every day or burger or fries. And that's just hard to actually, like, it just upsets my stomach and I don't feel well. And I like to stay focused. You know, it's something that is somewhat healthy. I don't claim to be an expert on nutrition or health but yeah,

Lena Simon 18:13
I agree. I was surprised to buy the food and also bad it's the soda the drink. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, you have to, you can refill your soda if you want. Yeah, that's surprising because we're not used to it. I think like the food. Yeah.

Romane Guibert 18:27
And we have had the experience after with the portions. We went to the cinema, with Lena and another friend, and we want you to take your popcorn. And there was like two portions. And we felt like the little one will not be enough for three. So we took the big one. And it was like a huge bucket. Buttered popcorn.

Abdullah Najjar 18:52
I tried something I had I've had this experience with pizza. Like my friends. We were four and we went I think Papa John's or I don't know what restaurant it was. And we thought about getting something like I think we need we wanted like two medium pizzas or something. That would be enough for both for the four of us. But we ended up having so many leftovers. It's like oh my gosh, just so big. But yeah, I think there is this this this just excess in terms of size. And I'm talking food portions here and other people. But yeah, I don't I don't get it. Like it's just it's a different type of it's different culture. But I'm sure even in France the food portions are small. Yeah. Okay. But

Romane Guibert 19:43
it depends on where you go. Oh, but yeah, thinner than here.

Abdullah Najjar 19:47
Yeah. Okay. I think Speaking of food, I love the macaroons or macaron or whatever. Like yeah, this this thing with sweet sort of have colorful fans. Yeah, but do you guys do you guys miss that sort of lifestyle, the food and the French sort of culture whilst you're here? Yeah,

Romane Guibert 20:10
we miss so much cheese and like a ham bread, like typical French things.

Lena Simon 20:17
I think we can have it in the store here if you if we want but it's so expensive. Oh yeah, compared to France. So yeah, when we came back in December, spend Christmas with our families. We ate a lot of cheese and everything. Yeah, we miss that a lot. But I think yeah, we kind of used to, to eat the American food now. Yeah, we

Romane Guibert 20:41
managed to enjoy, you know, yeah.

Abdullah Najjar 20:42
Okay. You're adapting slowly, but surely. I remember my one of my flatmates was French. He did a semester here. It was also part of his schema program. And he said that I think tuna wasn't as good as the tuna in France. And I didn't notice.

Romane Guibert 21:05
When we arrived in the United States, she tried to buy to buy some tuna. She misunderstood the books, and she voted no. And she was like, I think you're vegan, or I don't know what

Abdullah Najjar 21:24
False advertising. Wow, that's yeah. So it was called to No, no,

Lena Simon 21:33
yes. It was written to know, and I didn't remember where it was Tuna. So I just bought it and then I was surprised because it was not Tuna. The smell was weird.

Abdullah Najjar 21:43
Well, that that was a that was a sign. Yeah, I don't think I've had something. Yeah. I don't know if I experienced something similar. But certainly there are a lot of I love that when you walk into the supermarket. Like the first thing you see are the baked goods. Or you see all the you know, the the I don't know, like the brownies, the muffins and all that stuff. Like you first walk in

Lena Simon 22:06
like, it's funny. I didn't notice doughnuts. Yeah, the entrance

Abdullah Najjar 22:10
is like, yeah, of the goodies. You know, I don't know. Is that something that's also similar In France?

Romane Guibert 22:16
I don't think so. No, we have isles that are ordered in terms of terms of food. So if you are searching for muffins, you will go to bread.

Speaker 1 22:30
Bakery. Yeah. And I think here, one thing that I noticed during the Halloween or Christmas, and they they really liked to sell things for this kind of events. Even in stores like you enter a store and you have everything for Halloween. You just have masks and in front of less than that,

Romane Guibert 22:52
especially for Halloween. And then here it is a religion

Lena Simon 22:56
thing French know. Oh, yeah, that was funny to be here. Yeah,

Abdullah Najjar 23:00
it's interesting. Yeah, that was a fun time. Also, I I really enjoy that season, especially when you go to like supermarket all this stuff. Like you says there's Halloween themed. And you know, you've got people just get so creative with their costumes. I remember this Halloween, I was dressed up as a like a professor. I tried to look like a professor with like a tie shirt, and like pants and shoes, but people thought that I looked like a pastor. So everyone was like, Oh, so you're a pastor. Like a youth minister. Like I had a green tie white shirt, and it's just it was funny. But I don't know I got I got a little bit creative, I guess. Maybe Yeah.

Romane Guibert 23:46
You was dressed up anyway. So being a pastor or professor you were a costume. So

Abdullah Najjar 23:56
what did you guys ever do that here? Like dressed up? And did you attend a Halloween party or?

Romane Guibert 24:02
Yeah, we dressed up for Halloween in fall semester. Okay. We tried to go to frat parties with costumes and but there is something I don't get. Because for me Halloween is supposed to be scary. People can dress up like as a things not scary. Like Professor true.

Abdullah Najjar 24:25
Yeah, there's a shift that I don't understand. Well, that must be something else that sort of different from the school and France right because fraternities and sororities Yeah, we don't have it. Okay. Well, what do you think you guys have that they don't like and especially in college?

Lena Simon 24:47
I have no idea.

Romane Guibert 24:49
Neither I can think about it. Maybe

Lena Simon 24:51
student organization. Oh, ah yes. We

have a lot here. You have a lot of sports organizations for students who just a group and meet up. In France, we have a lot of organization, whether regarding wines you can join, if you like wines, you can join if you like music. So yeah,

Romane Guibert 25:14
there are a huge panel of organization

Abdullah Najjar 25:18
like a wine tasting club. Yeah, oh wow. Wow. So you go places and you taste wine. And basically,

Romane Guibert 25:27
we were in the year of COVID. So we didn't do so much things. But we mainly organized some tastings for students. And sometimes we it was open for people that were not in schema. Interesting.

Abdullah Najjar 25:40
Yeah. So I want to maybe shift back a little bit to the experience of of travel. Do you feel like you learned a lot from this sort of being in South Africa now in the US? Especially? I mean, at this age? I mean, I'm sure maybe you've had travel experience before. But do you feel like these are significant moments of this sort educational journey that you're in?

Romane Guibert 26:07
Yeah, I think this was our first long term trips. And we learned a lot on ourselves. And I think the fact that we went on trips at our ages. So like, 22, and 24. We have the maturity to think about ourselves, what we learned, and we did a lot of that. With Lena, we talk a lot, and we managed to have out of you to like the best. Yeah,

Abdullah Najjar 26:43
very good. Do agree Lena?

Lena Simon 26:46
Yeah, I would say that this is the perfect age, for doing this kind of travels. And I encourage everybody to do so. For me, it was a, it was a bit different from Romane, because I was a bit afraid of leaving my family and my country. So yeah, that bring that brings a lot to me, because now I'm able to do things independent. I'm more independent, sorry. And I know that I'm able to go abroad. And that was not easy for me. So yeah, that was the perfect age. Because before I was too young, and I think after it will be too late, right? Yeah, that was the perfect timing, I think and we went alone. And that's different from going in holidays with your family. That's right. Like you're just yourself, and you're more open minded, because you have no choice to be. And then yeah, this is a wonderful experience.

Romane Guibert 27:39
And it's a year in whole year of abroad. So you can earn a lot of self confidence by doing so.

Abdullah Najjar 27:49
Oh, yeah. Most certainly did. And do you believe that there would be another journey that you go through abroad or back to France

Lena Simon 27:58
This is unfortunately the end regarding studies. Maybe in our professional life, we'll go abroad, but we graduate at the end of this spring?

Abdullah Najjar 28:11
Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. So your seniors? Yeah. Interesting. Wow, I didn't know that. I'm interviewing you. And I didn't know.

Romane Guibert 28:22
Going to work in France. Yeah. Wow.

Abdullah Najjar 28:24
So that is that would so you're trying to make the best out of this final part of that sort of undergraduate journey. That's incredible. What so when do you guys like finish studying at schema? Like is it in May, April are classes

Romane Guibert 28:40
Classes at the end of April. But then we have to do a final internship to have our diploma.

Abdullah Najjar 28:49
Interesting. Wow. So it must have been such an different sort of system altogether? Because I'm sure like in the French system, you guys have the 20 scale, right? 13 out of 20. Like now here we have the GPA percentage and 4.0 scale. Yeah, that's an

Romane Guibert 29:10
American teacher a grade a lot more easier than then in France, like your people are much more kind. In France, Professor, I like strict and you have a lot of 12 out of out of 20 here. It's not the case you have like a good grade.

Abdullah Najjar 29:29
Right. So we're since we're starting to wrap things up. Here's my final question that I'm sure you two definitely. Maybe you've thought about before. Do you feel like now that you're approaching the sort of the end of journey to us and you're returning back to France? Do you think you would you would find yourself in an elective or first cultural shock of some sort, or do you feel like it's become so easy to transition from one place to the next without Uh,

Romane Guibert 30:00
it will not be easy. Yeah. I enjoy it that much that I am so afraid to come back to France. Yeah, I think even when between South Africa and the United States, the two months of summer we spent in France, it was kind of hard to learn back and get back your, your what you're used to do in France.

Abdullah Najjar 30:24
Interesting. Yeah. Well, you Alina. Um,

Lena Simon 30:28
I would say that the transition between South Africa and France was difficult for me. Because French people are different. But now I'm prepared to go back to France. And I want to go back to France because I miss it a bit. So yeah, that's not a problem for me. But yeah, there will be a lot of changes for us in terms of just the language like everyone speaks French, in France. So here, we can speak together and nobody hears this. This is a huge difference. This is funny, but this is a huge difference for us. And, uh, yeah, I'm quite excited, excited to meet my friends in France and even my friends here in Raleigh are going back to France. So yeah, that's not a problem for me to go back.

Abdullah Najjar 31:14
Nice. Well, I it was pleasure having you both here. And I really wish you all the best with the rest of your educational journey here in the US.

Romane Guibert 31:21
Thank you very much. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you.

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