Living on an American campus is almost like in the movies: everything is done for students and it's like a small city.

Every student can practice any sport he wants, early in the morning or late in the evening.  

Everyone spends time in the library or in cafes studying.

The library is even open 24/24h during the week of final exams. I find that it is still different from the studies in France. French students do not have this “habit” to stay and work at the library until late at night every day. They do that only for the final exams. Whereas here everything is based on continual assessment and exams are only 15 or 20% of the final mark!

Students also have many places where they can relax, spend time playing pool between classes...

On campus, any problem is supported by the omnipresent campus’ security and when it snows, they clear it.  

Living on campus is a real experience! It’s to benefit from the good atmosphere in the “houses”, have access to a great gym, a cafeteria with lots of choice (locals are however complaining about the lack of variety), a Starbucks, all doctors and even a university shuttle running after 8 p.m., when the city bus stops circulating.

Everything is here, within a few hundred meters.

Finally, as on any American campus sports teams are one of the main "attraction". Students choose the university mostly for the beauty of the campus or for its sports teams. Athletes are also very recognizable on campus because they never leave their caps, even in class or at the cafeteria!

At Salve, the campus is unique: students live in historic homes, which include several rooms.

The city of Newport is also very beautiful and original in its way, because there is no other place with this type of architecture, even small shops have a particular style.

I had the chance to go to Newport, Rhode Island, for my semester abroad. Paul Debarnot, another student form ESDES also went with me for six months and we were joined by Marina Draillard, a psychology student at the UCLy.

Thus, Wednesday, January 13 at 2p.m. local time, after a more than 12 hours flight and an endless trip, I finally landed in Boston.

The city welcomed us with which we thought was an extreme cold because it had snowed the night before.
Once at the airport, I was immediately impressed by the important patriotism in the USA. The American flag is everywhere and always in the foreground: on some houses, in the metro stations, in the street...

I also was immediately surprised by the fact that it was dark very early, around 4:30 p.m. Therefore, when we finally arrived on campus after 2 hours’ drive, we could not see anything clearly.
Our two mentors, George and Ghaith, who picked us up at the airport also accompanied us throughout the integration week for various administration documents, shopping, and especially to find buildings on campus, what seemed to us very complicated at the beginning!