Sara’s abroad in Paris, France, until Dec. 13.

Let me preface this with the assertion that I really am having a wonderful time in France. As the temperature has started to drop, Paris has only gotten more beautiful. Or maybe it’s just been cooperating with the gods of Fashion Week, but it’s really been all around gorgeous in the city this week. But, while it looks great, I’ve experienced my first real problem and frustration with Paris, and France as a whole.

You would think that one of the most famous cities in the world, in a modern Western country, would have functioning modern technology — things like Internet, phones, etc. The kinds of things we completely take for granted at home. At Northwestern, most students think it’s absurd that we don’t have wireless Internet throughout the whole campus (it is) and expect an internet connection to be available at pretty much a moment’s notice. And as far as phones… well, if you ever lose your phone or leave it home accidentally during a night out, it can literally feel you’re cut off from the world.

In deciding to study abroad I knew I didn’t want to deal with communication problems, which ruled out a bunch of countries from the start. What I didn’t know is that France is pretty far behind in technology themselves. In the 80s and 90s during the tech-boom of the United States, France was busy trying not be like the US. In the EU studies class I’m in, we’ve learned that a significant part of French foreign policy in the past 30 years has been promoting France and diminishing the influence of all things not French within France’s border. And one of those things is apparently the World Wide Web. Since the French economy is largely linked to the state, they had the ability to promote the sectors that they felt were important. Unfortunately, tech stuff fell by the wayside. In the past ten years or so, they’ve started to pick up the pieces and have realized the necessity of a communications sector. But, with such a late start, things just don’t work here the way they do at home.

So what does that mean for Northwestern students studying abroad in Paris? Well, first of all, completely unreliable wireless. Sciences-Po, the school I’m going to, has wireless that is fairly reliable but you can’t use AIM or iChat. No big deal. Facebook takes a while to load also, but for doing homework and researching it’s fine. The only problem is, school is a 30 minute metro ride from where I live and the library is closed by 8 p.m. most nights -– and not open late on weekends. Using the internet at FIAP, the “hotel” we’re staying at? Well, unlike almost every hostel and hotel in France and Europe, they don’t have free wireless. And Northwestern won’t pay for us to get Internet. So that means each hour spent online costs 1 euro. Not that bad, but it adds up. There’s also free Internet at McDonald’s -– but free means that you have to buy something, which is at least 2 euros, and you haventrek out to Place d’Italie, a metro stop about 10-15 minutes from FIAP, because the McDonalds nearby doesn’t have functioning wireless. Of course. And then you have the issue of charging up your computer before you go because there are no outlets.

And, as I learned this week, pay-as-you-go cell phones are a hassle too. To make a long story short, France has a policy about registering your phone before the line can be activated so, for now, I’m phoneless until Monday, at the earliest.

Having all this trouble with communications has made me notice two things. One, it really does make you go out and experience Paris and be more spontaneous doing it — you have no choice but to hope things work out since I can’t just look things up online or call people to meet up. But two, the downside is that I’ve found it makes me more homesick. If I knew I could just talk to family or friends back home for a minute or log online and catch them on Skype before I went out for the night, I would feel much better. But that’s all part of the study abroad experience: pushing yourself and learning to function in a new culture. And, I can say without a doubt, upon my return to the United States, I will never complain about Northwestern’s lack of wireless. I will just be thankful to have an Ethernet cord.

And as you read this, you’re undoubtedly surfing the web yourself. So, while things in America might be a hectic, with the economy down and the election heating up, appreciate the fact that when it all gets to be too much, you’ve pretty much got the world at your finger tips.

As for me, as annoying as this whole communications debacle has been, exiting the metro on my way to meet up with friends only to find myself unexpectedly underneath the Arc d’Triomphe really has no price. So in the end, I think Paris is worth three months without Facebook.

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