FINALLY

And now, officially, I can start writing about the second half of my semester: the internship period.

The first week (which I would imagine is usually an orientation week) felt like my first month in the work world. Indeed, I had a meeting with my maître de stage this past Monday and she said it definitely like it seems like I’ve been in AFS: Vivre sans Frontière for more than a week. As I am writing this entry more than a week after I first started, I shall describe my internship briefly and then simply list various points, in essence hopefully providing a brief synopsis of the past work days.

Well, as briefly mentioned above, I’m working with AFS: Vivre sans Frontière, the French branch of the New-York based study abroad programme (AFS = American Field Service). Basically, I’m working on the administrative side of study abroad. Indeed, the aforementioned is my initial reaction to the question of what my internship is about. In actuality, it’s not that far off.

As the American intern, I seem to be particularly responsible for all things that have to do with the English language, primarily working on translations of dossiers (I'm fairly certain we use the word "dossier" in regular English; in this case, I'm talking about the file of a candidate, of whom are 15-18). I should also add that there are, among the different ‘departments’ (and I use that term directly as there are only 14 professionals, and 3 interns, myself included), two main groups: a group to help prepare the French students studying abroad, and a group to welcome the foreign students to France. I’m working with the group welcoming the foreign students, so my main duty is to help read the applications written in various forms of the English language and translate certain parts into French and save that information into the main database. Alongside this translation work, I’ve translated some French host family forms into English, and one not-so-great English letter into a letter with better English. I’ve also been charged with helping to prepare dossiers to be posted onto the AFS database and retrieving and filing dossiers directly from the global site.

Our department consists of myself and the three people with official titles. Anaïs oversees the functioning of the group and coordinates the welcoming programmes; Angélique is responsible for the recruitment of foreign students (I’m mainly helping her to read and translate those students’ files); and Claire is responsible for following up with the foreign students, helping them to figure out the visa process, etc. Sébastien, Simon, and Natalie (who work in the office across from our’s) basically do the same thing, but for the departing French students. Elsa, my maître de stage, oversees the overall functioning of both programmes. There are about 50 member nations worldwide (with 400 professionals in total), including (of course) the United States of America, as well as the Philippines, South Africa, and the Dominican Republic. Here are some other numbers you can find on the website (http://www.afs-fr.org/index.asp):

OVERALL
10 000 participants each year (3-month, 6-month and one-year programmes)
100 000 un-paid volunteers (including host families)

IN FRANCE
29 local associations
300 French students leaving each year
400 foreign students welcomed each year
400 volunteers (including host families)

Also, here’s the U.S. website: http://www.usa.afs.org/usa_en/home

An interesting concept of AFS is the fact that none of the families receive any money from AFS to host students. As a result, it’s clear that these families truly want to host students and are doing so out of the kindness of their hearts (and wallets!), further encouraging cross-cultural learning and dialogue (not that I know a thing or two about that, haha).

Well so much for being brief… As such, let me continue a bit more. J

For the first week, at least, I was introduced to a new restaurant or place to purchase food for lunch. My brief food journal for my first week was as follows:

Monday- Italian; Italian ham, pizza, and chocolate mousse (10 €); lunch outdoors, restaurant backyard/patio
Tuesday- the boulangerie by the RER; ham crudité, chocolate cake slice, and drink (6,50 €); lunch on the dock, watching the geese, swan, and other flying creatures
Wednesday- served by weight (sort of like in South Africa); carrot salad (not like in South Africa), gratin (vegetable) with chicken or pork kabob, and yoghurt (7 €); lunch in the backyard of our office building (which is really a house)
Thursday- the boulangerie en route to the office; ham crudité, viennoise au chocolate, and drink (5,90 €); lunch in the backyard
Friday- pizza from a local pizzeria; five-cheese: mozzarella, chèvre, feta, camembert, and some other French cheese (7,50 €); lunch in the backyard

I’d also like to add that, this past Monday, we went to a Pakistani restaurant (11,50 €) and naan au fromage is wicked tasty!