MONTPELLIER, France-For most students studying abroad in Europe, spring break is a chance to travel to countries they may never see again.
But for Laura Baker, a senior at the University of Mississippi studying abroad in Montpellier, the only place she wants to be is home, in Georgia.
\I just want to be in America,"" Baker said. ""That's more important right now.""
Baker said she is going to spend her two-week spring break there, and will save traveling throughout Europe for later.
""Being here has made me miss America more than I ever thought I would,"" she said.
In the United States, opposition to the war in Iraq is vocal, with Michael Moore's speech at the Oscars and nationwide campus rallies, but there are also outspoken supporters of the government's actions including other Hollywood types and politicians.
In France, one would be hard-pressed to find a crowd passionately supportive of the war.
So for students abroad who support military action in Iraq, life in France can be a series of mental trials and tribulations, more so than for those who oppose it.
Brian Kuzel, a senior at the University of Minnesota also studying in Montpellier, said he ""definitely saw France as our enemy"" in the current war.
""This war is basically about propaganda,"" he said. ""And when France is putting out really negative propaganda about the United States, then yes, they are our enemy.""
Fran??oise Chaton Defrecheux, on-site director of the University of Minnesota study abroad program in Montpellier, said she thought the majority of the students in the program were anti-war, or at least opposed to the violence of war.
Students who were supportive of the war had come to her with feelings of frustration, she said, but the frustration was a result of not being more capable in the French language in order to clearly articulate their thoughts.
""They have good reasons to say what they say,"" she said.
Being abroad also exposes students to news sources other than those most prevalent in American media. The French media, usually written to what the average American would consider a bit left politically, is currently consumed with the situation in Iraq, offering a different perspective to what is usually presented in the United States.
For some students, this new perspective is not always welcome.
Baker said she no longer watched French television news like she had when she first arrived in France.
""They're definitely not neutral,"" she said. ""They do more of sitting around and saying why they don't agree instead of giving the facts.""
Often the same students who find French news to be biased, find the mentality of the average French citizen to be narrow-minded.
For Kuzel, for instance, the semester abroad has been less immersed in French culture than a previous study abroad experience in Mexico was, a reality he attributes to the deteriorated relations between France and the United States.
He said he would love to have French friends, but he did not ""think anyone would like him.""
""I couldn't be myself around them-the first thing they always ask you is what you think about Bush ... or about the 'American war',"" Kuzel said. ""It always puts a damper on things.""
For both Baker and Kuzel, a semester in France has strengthened their appreciation of their native country.
Kuzel said he actually felt more of a kinship with citizens of other ""American"" countries like Mexico as a result of studying abroad in France.
Baker acknowledged that a lot of her pro-American sentiments stemmed from where she was from: a conservative area of the south. But she said difficulties she encountered resulting from having vastly different opinions from the average French citizen would not make her change the way she felt about the United States.
Some American students claim to be Canadian or British to avoid the stereotypes presently associated with their true nationality. Baker said her French host-mom once suggested she tell people she was from Sweden since her blond hair and fair complexion would not make that assertion implausible.
""I didn't. It made me so angry that I would have to even do that,"" Baker said. ""I would never deny my nationality.""
