Lisa Jones '79, who has lived in Paris for the last three years, says even among her friends she was sometimes labeled "The American." "If you had no feelings of nationality before, you develop them," Jones says.

In Paris, Lisa Jones associated primarily with Africans and West Indians. "Black and white Americans don't mix here or abroad," Jones says. "When a black community is there, blacks are drawn there. I felt a kinship towards them [the Africans and West Indians]. Our color bound us together." She would sometimes pose as a Moroccan, Arab or South American to avoid anti-American feelings from Prenchmen she would meet on the street.

Holloway said, "I felt more comfortable in Panama than many white Americans. The Panamanians, black and Latin, treated you differently. They'd say, "She's black; she's one of us."'

But Valerie Moore says, "overseas, you were black incidentally. You didn't forget you were black, but there was more interest in the person."

Most of these students came to Harvard for what they term "the typical reasons"--the reputation, academics, parental pressure. Many though at least briefly of attending college abroad but those who attended American schools were automatically directed toward American colleges, and for those who didn't it was often difficult to transfer into a system they weren't prepared for.

Most of these students did not admit having experienced culture shock on their return to America or to Harvard. They say they are experts at adaptation, acting one way in America and another way abroad. To Holloway, who has never spent more than four years in any one place, Harvard seems like "just another assignment." It may be habit, an expression of chic, a youthful fixation or something wrong with American society that makes re-entry seems less than totally desirable to many. It may be significant that these particular students, many of whose parents are connected with government service, have these feelings about America. Or they may just have a more acute sense of vision gained from their experience abroad. They feel they haven't lost a homeland but have gained two.