One of the most significant intercultural relationships I think I had while I was abroad was meeting my friend Antoine Bieniek, who is from Lille, France which is located North of Paris. He was studying abroad from France in Spain at the Catholic University that was five minutes away from our study center. There were certain classes that Florida State University was offering in their course program that related to his major, so he came to our building each week to take classes. I was lucky enough to be in two of his classes that semester. Originally, I am ashamed to say that I unfortunately did have the stereotype in my mind about French people. Americans tend to think that they are stuck up and rude, not even willing to give us the time of day. What is more, I had heard that people who are from the North of France are equally as strange and different. I found the exact opposite in Antoine. He was more than friendly to me, always wanted to know about my life back home in Florida, and asked me to hangout multiple times. We became good friends and still keep in contact. I found no sense of rudeness about him, like some stereotypes about French people lead you to believe here in America. He and I connected and broke through the stereotype together. He and I laugh at the fact that we want to switch places in our lives; while I want to go back and live in Europe, he wants to live and work in America. It is true that stereotypes exist, but in no way did it hinder me making a great friend while abroad, and I'm happy about that.
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