Last fall, when the three-week transportation strike required us all to walk everywhere, one American student was bold enough to ask the university to rent a school bus. Having no campus life, the American student feels a little lost at first. French students are more individualistic and hard to meet. American students also tend to congregate together, eating in American restaurants such as Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and the Hard Rock Cafe, which, of course, is a handicap if they want to meet the natives. During the length of the program, we organize many group activities such as visits to the theater, opera, ballet, and excursions.
Students have different tastes.
Certainly our aim is to persuade them to participate in activities, explaining that these are opportunities which may never come again. Indeed most students participate. But there will always be some who, due to their budget restrictions or personal preferences, will not join in these activities. What I want to point out is that a program director must accommodate these individuals without subjecting them to group pressure. Paris offers so many cultural activities, of course, that many students go off on their own.