Or is it? 

The common reaction to when your college roommate’s dad’s co-worker is your mom’s hairdresser’s brother might be, “What a small world!” The widely-accepted fact that between two people only exist six degrees of separation would confirm that, yes indeed, it is a small world after all. Yet, despite confronting my own small-world moments on three continents in my time at Wofford so far, I’m reporting live from France to say that the world just might be bigger than it seems. 

With the completion of two study abroad orientations, its clear how instinctively college students are really the best networkers around. The initial exchange of “Where is home for you?” and “Where do you go to school?” is always followed by “Do you know so-and-so?”  

“Yes! Is he a Pi Kappa Sig?” or “Yeah, but I think she went to the other high school in town” tend to follow. Whether the connection is to a hometown, a university, a Greek chapter, or even a grandma, we know how to find a link. Then, when brought together in a study abroad program, college kids are like a shuffled deck of cards; suddenly the Queen of Spades is next to the Four of Aces and they both know the Jack of Diamonds. In Valparaíso, I was in poetry class with the younger sister of a former Wofford student who I once had Spanish class with. In Uruguay I met an artist who wore a Pittsburgh t-shirt—she once lived down the street from where my two older siblings now live in Steel City. Back in Tanzania, the mom of a co-worker at the NGO I was placed at worked with the mom of another Wofford student who was in Tanzania, as well. I was sure I would find a connection once I reached Paris.   

There’s a girl who goes to College of Charleston, plus another who lived in Greer growing up and knows one of our own Tri Deltas on campus. I have one peer who knows a few of my friends from last semester’s program in Chile, plenty of others are from Chicago and know my original hometown, and a few Mid-Atlantic folks recognize Carlisle, or at least Dickinson College.   

However, standing on a street corner in Paris, the world feels objectively gigantic. Half of the time I can’t discern the languages heard around me.  Many of the students I’m with attend schools you and I have never heard of. In this unique program especially, the semester is divided into three “blocks” of six weeks each, with “global institutes” in cities from Cape Town to Copenhagen, Buenos Aires to Berlin. When I arrived fresh from the United States (but still very much processing my most-recent experiences in Peru), the question of the day was not necessarily about one’s home or university but rather, “Where have you been?” and “Where are you going?”  

Rome to Paris to Rio, or Cape Town to Paris to London, even Berlin to Paris to Madrid—the global factor is through the roof. Conversations between class are about surfing in the Indian ocean and bathing in Budapest. Their plans for the semester—which parallel some of my own and the itinerary of many Wofford students who spend a semester in Europe—include taking trains to the south of France, Easter at the Vatican, even a short excursion to Morocco. With so many of the world’s cities easily accessible from European hubs, the world does feel like it is at our finger tips.  

Even though a weekend getaway to Tangier seems feasible, France itself is so large and diverse (geographically) that it feels like a whole world in and of itself. There’s the quaint villages in the south worth whole weekends devoted to walking their alleys and visiting Cezanne’s former studio; the vineyards of Bordeaux merit at least a day trip. My host family has invited me to their beach house in Brittany, a region in the north. I could get to know the German-influenced towns along the eastern border, not to even mention the 20 distinctive neighborhoods within the city proper of Paris!  

I’m fortunate to have six weeks to pretend I’m as chic as a Parisian, then another six weeks to eat as much gelato and absorb as much Renaissance art as possible. Each city offers so much but at moments it feels like too much—let alone the entire countries and their neighbors. This abroad girl may have been to four continents and may have met a lot of mutual friends while traveling, but I have found that this world is truly is a big one after all—but I digress.   

CAPTION: Abby Logue ’20 is also studying abroad in Paris, France this semester. In between her first and second block, she completed a tour of Italy through Rome, Florence and Venice, plus, she has visited Belgium and Switzerland.