Studying abroad in a new country is an interesting experience. You get to be a resident in a foreign country for a few months. You live among the locals, like a local. As soon as I arrived and started orientation with my program they told us we are not tourists. That we need to be sure to avoid acting like tourists because that isn’t the experience we are supposed to have while here. We are here to live as the Parisians do rather than as an American tourist would. Makes sense right? I was totally all for this idea. I even went out of my way to avoid the touristic side of Paris. I told myself that I didn’t want to go see the Eiffel Tower outside of casually passing by. I said I would choose a small unknown museum over going to the Louvre. I would spend all my time visiting “local” spots in the city. It all sounded so dreamy.
Then I became a tourist for a weekend. We had our first weekend outside of Paris. A group of friends and I decided to go visit Belgium for a few days because we are in Europe and we can. We were so excited for the change in scenery, making lists of things we want to do and foods we want to eat. As soon as we got there we just threw our bags in the hostel and started exploring. It was fantastic. I feel in love with this overwhelming feeling of excitement. We were being tourists. We weren’t worried about fitting in or treating it like a normal day at home. We hit all of the big exciting spots and had fun exploring. We took dorky photos in front of famous buildings and rivers. We went on guided tours and lived among the other tourists. We fell in love with a restaurant and their famous fries(still dream of Fritland tbh). We were happy and excited from the moment we got there till the sad moment when we had to leave.
At one point it felt as though we liked Belgium more than we did France, and that hit me in a weird way. Why was exploring this new place so much easier? It felt as though we saw more of Belgium in our handful of days there than in the total amount of time I had spent in Paris so far. Maybe being a tourist wasn’t all bad. We were all happy and having fun while visiting this new place, whereas when we were back in Paris we already felt very routine and less adventurous. I think this is a problem that many study abroad students run into. The tendency while abroad is to put more focus on the amount of places visited on weekends outside of the country you're living in rather than really enjoying the place picked to study in. My friends were all saying they were in love with Belgium but I started to think that maybe it was the tourist mindset that they were in love with. I don’t want to come back saying “Paris was cool, but look at all these other places I went to for a couple days.”
So while sitting on a bridge in the city of Ghent, I started thinking about the whole idea of the tourist mindset. First off, tourists make and read lists and itineraries. It’s their way to make sure they get everything they want to be accomplished in their time there. There are thousands of articles online with titles similar to “Top Ten Things to do in ____”. I know because I read plenty of “top ten” lists for our trip to Belgium and a handful of “top ten” lists before I came to Paris. I would say in our three days in Belgium we hit pretty much all of the top ten things. Residents of the cities we visited probably don’t do these types of touristic things. Since I am a resident of Paris right now I know I haven’t done the “top ten things to do in Paris” because I am in that “local” mindset that’s telling me not to. When I go back home to the states in December people are going to ask me if I did and saw these big touristy things, and honestly, I would be a little embarrasses of I spend four months here without hitting all of the Paris highlights. People come for a week and hit them all, I am certain I can do it in four months.
Now Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world, but back at home I live in one of the most visited cities in the Untied States and work at one of the most visited theme parks in the World. So I am no stranger to being in a place full of tourists. I meet and talk to people from all over the world at work every day. My everyday routine is in a place some people dream about visiting. So this led me to google “The Top Ten Things to do in LA” and I was embarrassed to see that I haven’t done a lot of things on that list and I’ve lived there for 20 years now. There is just so much to be seen that people who come and visit for a week do and I have had 20 years worth of opportunity and still haven't accomplished. Because I’m a local. Locals don't do that kind of stuff. But why not? Obviously, it’s cool enough for someone to take a twelve-hour flight to come and do. People travel from all over the world to visit my city so why don’t I take the time to visit it myself?
The real question is why do we think of the tourist as a bad thing? I want to be a tourist more often now both here in Paris and even when I get back to California. I don’t see anything wrong with enjoying and exploring a city you love. Yes, it’s important to be a local and live day to day life because this is a very special type of experience to live here, but being a tourist a few times a week won’t hurt.
xoxo
Julia Carrington
