Bon jour! My name is Clayton McKee and I am very excited to be a Geoblogger for spring 2015. I study Spanish literature, French literature, and comparative literature as a junior at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park campus. In about one week, my flight from Dulles in Washington D.C. leaves for Charles De Gaul in Paris, France for the entire spring semester and I cannot be more ecstatic.

As a student of many languages (I also have studied Arabic and Chinese, I am sure you are wondering “Why France?” Well, beyond the academic reason of being slightly behind in French classes due to a lack of credits in high school, I chose France, and Paris in particular, because of a love of cities and a love for French culture, literature, and language. I traveled for two weeks to Spain and France with my high school. We spent a majority of time in Spain (since most students studied Spanish); however, out of the five total days in France, two were spent in Paris. In those two days, the environment of the “City of Lights” with its arts, diversity, fashion, and pride spoke to me like no other place I had seen.

IES runs the French Studies Program in Paris. The summer directly after my freshman year I studied in Egypt on a Penn State faculty run program. While anxious about the sense of independence for this experience, I also look forward choosing my own classes, taking trips apart from my program, but more so at the ability to live in a home stay and meet more locals.

Over this semester, I plan to create an extensive blog that will cover a variety of topics from study abroad in general, in Paris, and a comparison between my previous experiences abroad and this one. I also plan on covering travel tips, things to do while in France/Europe, and give an American’s perspective on Europe and France.

I encourage feedback on my blogs about what you like, don’t like, and what you want to see more/less of! My next post will be from Paris! Happy reading!

Clayton McKee

Location: Newville, Pennsylvania 17241