“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” -Gail Sheehy

This is our last week at home before heading to Florence for the final trip. It’s a week of wrapping up personal works, finishing our term long book project, and enjoying the last cups of Chocolat Viennois from Le Festival, the café where we have Literature class.

To be blunt…This week was kinda crazy. There we were, at home in Aix, giggling over our German lessons and researching cool things to do during our free time in Munich with little success to find anything better than an apparently sub-par aquarium when right under our nose, Storm Ciara was raging her way across northern Europe.

From Nikki you have heard of the Tête, which towers above our home here in Vauvenargues. From Tori you have heard of our custom napkins and pre-dinner traditions. But...do you ever wonder what happens when we venture outside of Vauvenarges? 

Birds are chirping, music is playing, and it is currently 64 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze coming from 200 degrees south of Vauvengares. The bright, fluid aquamarine colored pool appears so inviting… until you jump in, which our entire group did on Monday after our somewhat sweat breaking body pump with Dave. Did we regret it? No. Would we do it again? Potentially.

Proctor's European Art Classroom is preparing for an excursion to Paris, and in the meantime shares a window into their daily life in Aix-en-Provence as the group of eight students and two faculty settle into a routine. Enjoy photos from Dave and Vienna, and Tori's reflections on the importance of this group sitting for dinner together each night. 

European Art Classroom, Proctor's term-long art immersion program based in Aix-en-Provence, France enters their second week of living and creating abroad. Read Nikki's realistic mini-story and enjoy the photos taken by European Art Classroom co-director , Dave Fleming, and Kaley "Gwyneth - Lady Guinevere" '20.

Proximate learning does not occur without risk, but it is in those moments where students are living their education alongside the issues they are studying where world views are transformed. Tomorrow at noon, more than a third of Proctor's student body will submit applications to study abroad on one of our five term-long off-campus programs next year. Many will apply to study off-campus for the first time, while others will look to cap their Proctor experience with a second or third trimester abroad. So why is it that more than 80% of our students choose to study off-campus?