Freshman Year Social Life, Senior Year Workload

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First, I just want to thank everyone for the overwhelming amount of love and support I got from my last post (if you missed it, you can find it here). Unfortunately this post isn’t going to be as personal, but if you’re interested in what school is like, go ahead and read on!

Starting school here was like going through Freshman year again. I didn’t know where any of my classes were, didn’t know anything about the school, and I didn’t know anyone. Being in France, most of the communication regarding orientation and information was either ambiguous, in French or nonexistent. Once again, I probably should have been close to a breakdown. Let me breakdown what it was actually like. Hopefully someone reading this is needs to know more about GEM so they aren’t as lost as I was.

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My Classes

Thankfully, the setup of my class schedule made this all much more manageable.  Grenoble École de Management (GEM) organizes their undergrad, or BIB (Bachelor in International Business) students into cohorts of about 35. Then you have all of your classes, excluding foreign language, with this group of students. Every semester you have a different cohort. Within these cohorts there are a couple different groups of students.

There are students who go to GEM for their entire BIB, which are called progressive. These students take their first two years completely in French or completely in English. The semester I went on exchange, I was mixed in with third year students. Thus, the French and English students had just been mixed together for the first time. As a result, some of the students were taking classes completely in English for the first time, which I cannot even imagine (some of our teachers were really hard to understand, and this is my first language).

Within my class were many international students. Some were on exchange for a semester, like me, and some were progressive students. There were students from the US, France, Switzerland, Egypt, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, China, Singapore, Ireland, and more. With this many countries represented, classes felt like the UN, minus Robert’s Rules, at some points (haha that’s a joke). But honestly, group projects were really difficult at times because of cultural differences, so I cannot stress how important it is to actually have skills in that buzzword, cultural intelligence. My class got pretty close, which made for some pretty good in class discussions and fun nights out.

Class Schedule

The schedule for courses here is somewhat stressful if you like routine. We had a different schedule every week, with different courses in different rooms. The cohorts had slightly different teachers for different courses, and some of our courses had multiple teachers. The nice thing is that we would always have class from 9am-12:15pm, 1:15pm-4:30pm, and/or 4:45-8pm. We would only ever have two of those time slots in one day, and we got a 15-minute break between. Overall, I felt that this schedule was a nice change from the normal routine.

Our courses were focused on international business, which made them feel repetitive at times. However, since we were able interact with and learn about so many cultures at once, the content was more applicable to our actual experience. One of my favorite courses was Intercultural Business Skills. While it was a pretty common-sense class, the professor helped us to understand cultural differences in a really applicable way. Actually, one of the most enjoyable assignments (aside from it being due at the end of the week with the heaviest workload), was a paper comparing our own culture to another. Another fun class was Innovation Management, where we got to create a new, innovative product and present it to the class. Additionally, out professors for this course were amazing. In the first half, we had an energetic ex-pat American who encouraged us all to be more creative in our daily lives (we played with legos in class one day with him). The second half was a no-nonsense Italian who sounds just like Gru from Despicable Me. He would run around during his lectures and try to keep the whole class engaged. While intimidating, he had a certain candor with the class that made us feel like we were his colleagues in some sense (maybe that’s why he thought tossing candy across the room was a good idea, until he hit me in the head…).

Our language classes are kind of cool in that they mix together all of the masters and bachelor students, and then place them depending on a test score. French students take English, and all other students take French. If you are already fluent in both, you take a third language, such as Spanish, German, or Chinese. While the content wasn’t the most interesting, I really enjoyed that this class was taught completely in French, and that I had a different variety of students than in my other courses. However, living with a host family, I didn’t exactly need the practice as much.

Student Life

The way clubs and social life at GEM is so different from UW-La Crosse, where I go in the states. First of all the student associations are quite difficult to join, and even more difficult if you aren’t French. I would compare joining them to joining a fraternity (I am in a co-ed business one, Delta Sigma Pi, so this is my frame of reference). You need to apply, interview, and hold a position to be in one. For most of them, you need to be friends with people already in it, and be able speak French to have a chance. Others, such as the international student one, are nicer about publishing information in English and accepting students their members don’t know. This was a very big surprise to me, as in the US, you can just show up to club meetings for most clubs, without officially being a member.

Even though they are selective, the student associations at GEM are highly active and put on cool parties, called SAT’s or OB’s (open bars). These are usually themed, and you buy a ticket for about 15-20 euros that covers all your drinks for a night. The tickets go on sale at a certain time, and you have to buy it right away. This is called a shotgun (French people use this word for everything, I guess you could say they’re trigger happy hehe). Then you also have to shotgun a bus time later in the week. Overall, I find this process very stressful, but the parties are cool. On the night they take place, you get bussed to the place, usually a warehouse outside Grenoble. Once there, you are drinking whatever mixed drink they have, and probably getting it thrown at you. The last one I went to only served tequila and orange juice, and I am not sure I can handle the smell of either for a couple months…

The other one I went to this semester was called Wall to Wall. Everyone wore white t-shirts and then went around writing things on each others’ shirts the whole night. We got a big group together to go, so we mostly just wrote on each others’ at the pre-drink (they don’t call them pre-games here). Here’s a picture from our whole group that night!

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Soooo…

…this is getting a little long, and honestly there isn’t that much more to say. If I don’t drown in studying for finals, I’ll post about some winter activities here (aka my Alps ski survival guide).

 

 

The Part Nobody Mentions

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In the first week of class, one of my professors told me that living outside your home country makes the highs higher and the lows lower. In that moment, I understood why that could be possible, but after living in one city here for about two months and traveling for another month before, I have lived through some of these ups and downs. This is not necessarily an easy thing to write about and post on the internet for everyone to see (yikes), but I think people often go abroad and just talk about how amazing it is, without talking about the tough parts. Don’t worry, I will mention some of the great moments too.

The First Month

The beginning is the hardest part. My school made sure I was ready for culture shock, but that wasn’t what made this time hard. It is how lonely it can be. This is the result of a couple of different things. First of all, making new friends takes time. Back at my home university, I can call a number of my best friends, and show up at their house 10 minutes later just to hang out. Not to mention, I had a boyfriend with whom I spent time constantly prior to leaving. So moving somewhere where I live with a family I don’t know well, who only speak a language in which I am not fluent felt extremely isolating.

On the weekends, there were people to go out with, but when I had class only for 6-9 hours a week, with not much homework to do, all that extra time felt huge. However, I did find some amazing friends who constantly want to do things together, which has helped me avoid being alone. Now, I enjoy these moments alone to recharge.

Brunch Day!

One of the best days of my entire semester was October 13th. My friend Victor invited a bunch of our friends to his house in the mountains. He made us the most amazing brunch and we all just enjoyed hanging out for the whole day. This was the first day I met most of the people I would hang out with for the following two months. All of us were really in a great mood and were constantly laughing. One of  my friends spilled some red wine on his white shirt, and then there was a group effort to clean it. In the meantime, he put on three of the girls’ sweaters or jackets before he finally took an extra shirt from Victor. Then he proceeded to wear that shirt out to the bars with some of us that evening. Some photos of the food and Victor walking around with this beautiful cake are below (unfortunately I am saving the photo of the friend in the girls’ clothing for his birthday…)

The Stress of School

At a certain point in the semester, everyone started getting sick, and the school work started picking up like crazy. This makes everyone really irritable with each other and sad about how hard our lives are. While this happens even when you’re not abroad, this situation panned out differently here for several reasons. First of all, my normal reaction to this much stress is to camp out at the library or a coffee shop in all of my free time. However, between having a set dinner time with my host family, and coffee shop hours not being quite as extensive here, this isn’t really an option. So I have to lump my work around times when I am at school, or motivate myself while at home, which is very difficult for me. Secondly, I know what stress looks like from an American culture, but from other cultures, it can look very different. So while I am extremely stressed myself, I am also trying to manage my friendships with friends who are also stressed, but their displays of emotion are ambiguous to me. Throw in a break-up and missing my family because of Thanksgiving, and you might assume I’m having the glorified mid-semester breakdown. I suppose you could call it that, although there hasn’t been any crying.

Thanksgiving

Speaking of Thanksgiving, this was another high of the semester, and it perfectly countered the aforementioned stress week. Thankfully (hehe), it fell the evening after our last class of the week, so the stress had been lifted. This is definitely another top memory from my semester here. It started with grocery shopping with my friends Fie and Megill, and then we spent the afternoon cooking. We were planning how to warm everything up when we got to the apartment that was hosting (the hosting apartment didn’t have to cook since they weren’t American and we invited ourselves over), just like my family does every year. All of this preparation felt like the evening and morning that happens before Thanksgiving at my house back home, where my mom and I talk and cook, with my brother and dad nearby organizing all of the food.

We arrived at dinner to have the boys who were hosting surprised at how much food we had brought (this was their first American Thanksgiving as far as I know). They all laughed at me when I poured apple cider into a pot and threw in some spices and orange peel. Then our friends started to arrive. It felt just like my family showing up every year (minus the dogs that were always roaming around), with us greeting each new arrival and offering drinks, including the aforementioned cider that was greatly enjoyed.

At dinner, we had all of the Thanksgiving staples. Megill even made us all go around and say what we were thankful for (not quite the rocks in the box, mom), which was nice after how much our group of friends picks on each other. In fact, I wouldn’t say that we had a Friendsgiving, it was actually a Thanksgiving, because in that moment, I felt like I was among family (ewww sorry for getting corny).

To top it all off, I got to call my actual family back home and say hi to everyone. This could have been the lowest low of being here, because I wasn’t home for such a special family holiday, but instead it was one of the highest highs.

This brings me to where I am now…

Honestly, I started writing this post about four or five days ago. But this was not an easy one to write because it bounces between being sappy and being vulnerable, both of which I do not enjoy. Moreover, I am a little under three weeks until my semester here is over, and only 22 days before I fly home. Then, I will be leaving the people who have supported me through so much while 4,500 (or 7,200km) miles from home. I think this is a harder goodbye than my family and friends back home, because I don’t know when or if I will see these people again.

So the highs are higher and the lows are lower, but I think it’s that way because we remember more intense emotions much better.

So it’s two AM here…

…which means I need to sleep, but coming up, I will actually write a post about my school and what that’s like!

I’m Still Alive

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As I am starting to hit crunch time in my classes (hence the title of the post – also it’s a killer Sia song), I seem to be losing time to post here. However, I just finished writing a 5-page paper on business ethics related to sexual harassment, so I am already on a writing binge. While I still have many jaunts to share about from the past few months, I need to stop to update you on my life here in Grenoble, France. A lot has changed since I arrived here; I have friends I cannot imagine not knowing, I have become single, and I’m trying to figure out what to do with my life after I graduate.

While I could tell you about the city I’m in and everything, I’ll save that for a later post (I promise I won’t go missing for months again). Instead, I’d like to share some cool things about being here!

Speaking French Constantly

Everybody knows that the best way to learn a language is full immersion. I thought I had this when I was working in collections with French-speaking customers from Quebec. However, hearing words in French around me every day is very different than talking to customers on the phone. I can’t even talk to the family I live with here without speaking French. When I was back in the states, I was always so eager to practice, whether it be through listening to music or watching Netflix in the language. Being here, my brain is half in French all of the time, so I can understand the world around me. It’s going to be strange not to have to do that when I’m back.

*side note: it’s so strange to hear people speaking American English here, that it’s kind of head-turning every time I hear it. I’m sure when I first get back, I’ll keep being surprised just hearing people talk!

Wine wine wine!

This one is a very true French stereotype. You can get a bottle of good wine (by American standards) for 5 euros, and that’s not even the cheapest bottle you can get. Also, at restaurants, you can always order a glass of wine. I have yet to go to one that does not offer it.

Greeting people: La Bise

This is definitely one of those things that I’m still getting used to. It’s when you say hi to someone and you do two cheek kisses. I like it because it’s used like we would say “what’s up” or “how’s it going” in the states. We use these in a rhetorical sense, so they’re kind of just a way to say hi. Doing la bise is nice because you know that the person actually wants to say hi to you. The only hard thing about it is knowing which side to start on. Also I once got made fun of by my friend Victor for looking disoriented about greeting their friend whom I’d never met this way. It’s okay though because I’m American so it’s not like I do this all the time.

However, as I am in a class that is mostly exchange students, greeting people can be a struggle. Every culture has it’s own way of saying hi! My friend from Brazil does one cheek kiss (but he’s started doing two to avoid confusion). I wouldn’t dare to try la bise with my friend from Finland, since he told me they stick to a head nod or a handshake. My sweet Danish friends both hug, as do the other Americans I know, but my friend from Norway always does la bise. And one of my close French friends (he’s actually half Chilean) has taken to hugging me. So pro-tip: if you’re going to another country where you’ll interact with a lot of locals, make sure you know how to greet them.

Polyglots everywhere

My friends here, on average, speak three or more languages, so they find it funny that learning a second language proficiently in the US is not very common. Most of them speak English, French (the school requires it) and their native language (if it’s French, the school requires them to take another language). One of my closest friends, Fie (from Denmark) was just telling me how she speaks so much English here that speaking Danish is really strange for her. When she does speak Danish with other students from there, they often mix a lot of English words in.

Public transport is great?

Okay this one is kind of an exaggeration. I take public transport everywhere here, which includes busses and trams. Doing this is an art when you live a mile from the city center and almost two miles from your school. There are multiple routes to get home, so I’m constantly checking schedules to see which will be fastest. Moreover, on Sundays and in the evenings, the transport runs less often, or will just stop all together, so I always have to plan ahead for when I’m going to arrive somewhere. The craziest thing about this is that driving would take even longer. The streets here are difficult to navigate and the traffic is insane. Busses and trams get priority at intersections and special lanes, so they’re often faster. I’m pretty pumped to get back and feel like my 10 minute walk to class is short.

Never getting ID’d

Okay I did get ID’d once while buying some wine and beer (the age to buy in most stores is 18, even though the legal drinking age is 16). But just walking in to bars without having to go through a bouncer is amazing. Sometimes when I see people outside smoking, I think it’s the line to get ID’s checked and then I remember that it’s not necessary. It’s funny because I’ve gotten my public transport pass checked three times in the last week, and can’t enter or leave my school without my ID, but don’t need my government ID at all!

Living with a host family

I don’t have to cook dinner or clean, and get a home-cooked meal every night. Plus I get to practice a lot of French with them, not to mention that my host dad is a history/geography buff, so he is always telling me great facts and information about the regional gastronomy and wine in different regions of Southern Europe. This is probably one of my favorite things here.

So I am sure that there are many more cool things about being here, but it’s almost 1am here and I can’t think of anymore right now, plus I want to go to bed. Also here are some cool pictures from my time here!

Interlaken

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This was one of our favorite cities so this is going to be a long one.

Day 1

Prior to heading to Switzerland, many people had told Courtney and I that it is expensive. As I’ve found that people say that about every city that isn’t in Central/Eastern Europe, I was kind of apprehensive regarding how true this was going to be. When we arrived, we did not have any Francs and could only buy a bus ticket in cash. Our hostel was a 20-minute bus ride from the train station, and the bus only came once an hour (the train station was in Interlaken and we were staying in Iseltwald). Unfortunately we barely missed the bus. Thankfully some British girls were heading to our same hostel and offered to share a cab with us.

Upon arrival, I couldn’t believe how beautiful this place was. I’m talking about pictures that you buy to hang on your wall or find in nature-themed calendars. As we would walk trough the streets, I couldn’t believe that this is an actual place on earth. And although we have many pictures, they really just can’t capture what it was actually like to be there. See below for reference.

So our first night we were going to buy some food from the hostel reception. But then we went into the kitchen and found a basket of free food (mostly pasta) and decide to cook some of that instead. Since there were only 4 burners and 4-5 people were cooking dinner, we were going to have to wait. Then, the girls we shared the cab with were cooking pasta and offered us some. So we ate with them and made some friends!

That night, as we were heading to bed, Courtney couldn’t find her key to open her travel lock. As her wallet, passport, computer and other things were in the locker, this was kind of a problem. After not finding the key, we came to the conclusion that it was locked inside. However, the desk was closed and it could’ve in the kitchen, which was also closed, so we’d have to wait until morning.

Day 2

The next morning I awoke to the sound of a saw on metal. Yes, Courtney had locked the key inside her locker and had to saw it open. Thankfully the hostel was very safe and she didn’t have to worry about her stuff being unlocked.

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 went for a long hike to a waterfall that was in the next town over, Giessbach. There isn’t really a lot to say about this, other than that it was just gorgeous. Also, it was cool to walk through some of the smaller Swiss towns in this area.

When we got back, we ate a small lunch in preparation for the chocolate making class we had signed up for at Funky Chocolate Club. Then we headed into Interlaken to wander around. We ended up doing some shopping and stopped at a great bar called The Barrel. Right when we walked in, the bartender asked us if we’d like to try a beer they just got in stock. It was brewed locally, and the brewer was sitting at the bar. It was delicious. They had a great selection of beers, including a lot of IPA’s (my personal favorite). We ended up having two drinks there and heading to the chocolate class tipsy.

We were apprehensive about doing it, as it costed 70 francs (about $70), but it had great reviews and figured it would be worth it. It definitely was. We learned a lot about chocolate, were taught how to temper it and even got to make three of our own bars to take home. If you ever head to Interlaken, this is a must-do. Just make sure you don’t eat a big meal close to it because they give you essentially all you can eat chocolate. You can find the website to sign up HERE.

When we got back to our hostel, we made some dinner and started on one of the two bottles of wine we had bought. After making dinner we found our British friends in the dining room, also enjoying a bottle of wine. We ended up sitting with them and finishing four bottles between four of us (yes that is one each so we were quite intoxicated). The amount of wine consumed led us to a late-night dip in the lake around 2am. We got super tight with the two girls, Becky and Grace. Becky keeps telling me that I need to come visit her in the UK, so that might just have to happen in the coming months.

Day 3

The next morning our friends left and we slept in instead of the early morning hike we were planning (again the wine’s fault). So we headed into town and took the funicular called Harderbahn to the most amazing lookout point.

Side note about funiculars : Despite their name, I do not find them fun. They are actually quite scary. However, as I decided to go to school in the mountains, they are a reoccurring mode of transportation. They are like a tram/train that go up the side of mountains.

Aside from how expensive it was, Interlaken is one of my favorite places I’ve visited. With the constantly cool, fresh air and mountain views every way you turn, I am not sure how it could be any more amazing.

Paris

Posted on Posted in August 2018 - Europe, FranceLeave a comment

Alright so I’m a little behind here, since I actually went to Paris a couple weeks ago. Honestly, to me, this is a hard city to write about visiting because I just feel the city to be a bit underwhelming. It might just be that I first went to Paris when I was in Europe for the first time and thought it was amazing, but after traveling more, it’s lost its luster a little. However, I did get to meet up with Courtney, my travel buddy, here. After a little bit of a rough morning, which involved a missed train due to an open bar the night before, we met up and caught the metro to our hostel.

For this stop we chose to stay at Generator, as we heard it was a very social. However, I am not sure it is social in the aspect of making friends if you’re traveling solo. They have parties most nights, especially on the weekends. So if you’re going to Paris with your friends to party, I’d recommend this hostel. In the end, we were glad we chose this spot to stay, as it was really close to the metro.

While in Paris, we took the metro everywhere. Most of the large attractions are just far enough away that the walks between are a bit long (30-40 min average). In addition to all the attractions to see, like the Eiffel Tour, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and the Louvre, I’d recommend spending some time in Montmartre. We did a walking tour through this part of the city and learned so much (find information about it HERE). This tour was especially great because it kept us off of the main drag near Sacré Cœur, the basilica in this quarter of Paris. This is probably one of the best walking tours I’ve ever done and will probably do it again when I bring my parents and boyfriend to Paris later this year.

Here are some photos from Notre Dame de Paris. The star that I’m on in the middle is something you stand on to signify that you’ll come back to Paris one day.

And some photos from the walking tour and other sights in Paris

Our tour guide also gave us some tips, including a great lunch place, and told us to head to the Louvre in the evenings on the days it’s open late. When we went to the Louvre, we actually entered through the metro station, which was really nice because it seemed less hectic than the last time I went and entered from the pyramid. While you could wander the art museum for hours, we were there for about an hour and a half. We just focused on seeing some of the most famous pieces, as well as my favorite painting, The Raft of the Medusa by Eugene Delacroix. It’s kind of a weird painting but has a very interesting story behind it. I’m not one of those people who takes excessive pictures of art so you can look it up for yourself (you’ll find a better quality one than I’d take anyways. I do have a photo of myself outside the Louvre and the Mona Lisa crowd below though.

While Courtney and I weren’t particularly comfortable going out and drinking at night in Paris, we did decide to have a few drinks at a beach area close to our hostel and then a couple back at our hostel. While in the hostel bar, I ran into a guy named Cam who looked very familiar from my university in Wisconsin. When I asked him where he was from, he immediately recognized me from a club we were both in. And then a french women sat down with us and started talking. After speaking with her for a few minutes, I discovered she had lived in my hometown as a child, which is CRAZY. Most Europeans I have encountered don’t know where the big city, Milwaukee, is and I live about 45 minutes outside of it. It is crazy how small the world is sometimes.

That was our last night in Paris, and then we were off to Interlaken, Switzerland. Paris was great, but we were really looking forward to a quieter city where we could do some hiking.

Lille

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Wandering the city

I arrived in Lille and immediately was excited to be in a city where I could communicate in people’s first language, rather than needing them to switch to English. After getting to my hostel and dropping my stuff off, I wandered the city to see the local cathedrals and buildings that were notable. The hostel had given me a local-made tourist map made by USE-IT (if you ever see these in a city, they’re always good. There’s an app that I used in Prague that was great, they just don’t have many cities on the app). Sadly, most of the city was closed as people were on vacation.

One cool place that I did find that was open was called L’Impertinente which was a tea and gâtal (cake) shop. The food was amazing, but I am not sure how much English anyone there spoke. I only really interacted with people in French and was treated very kindly. It isn’t like Paris, where people will respond to you in English more often. I honestly spent most of my day eavesdropping to give me the confidence to actually talk to people in French.

Feet hurting from walking all day, I headed back to the hostel to check in and shower in time for 7:30 welcome drinks (always take advantage of a free drink). You can see some of the beautiful sites of Lille below!

The locals show me the evening

During welcome drinks, I befriended some other travelers who were planning to head to some of the local bars. However, when we were sitting in the bar Gastama, which was attached to our Hostel, some locals sat down at the table next to us. In Lille, everyone is very friendly, especially after a couple drinks, so they started chatting with me. They were very confused as to why an American would ever come to Lille, but once I explained that I knew French and it was a nice stop between London and Paris, they just wanted me to see the city. So I joined them and left the other group of travelers.

The night that followed was one that is a dream come true for someone who studies French for 10 years with a professor from Lille, then proceeds to have a job speaking with Quèbecois for a year (their version of French is extremely hard to understand compared to that of northern France). We were popping between French and English all night. We went to a kind of throwback bar that played clips of old TV shows and played songs from the 80’s and 90’s in both English and French. Then we went to a jungle-like bar, and finally my personal favorite was La Pirouge which featured a very strong rum drink called Zazou which is about 85% 118-proof rum with some lemon juice and other mixers. Thankfully this was our last stop and I had only had a drink or two prior to this. The drink was delicious.

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London

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Why I was happy to be flying solo

London was the first city I ever travelled truly alone. And I could not have enjoyed doing so more!
The city is known for its free museums, such as the British National, the National Gallery and the Tate Modern museum. I am not sure I would want to drag anyone else through the hours I spent enjoying the paintings and art at these places.

In addition, the hostel I stayed at, Hostel One Camden was great for solo travelers as everyone who worked there wanted to get to know you, encouraged you to partake in the activities, and were always around even if they weren’t working a shift. They led an excursion every day, provided dinner every evening, and took us to a bar in the area every night. With all these things happening, I didn’t really feel like I was alone there. If you are going to London ever, I HIGHLY recommend staying at Hostel One. In addition to all this, they had a happy hour for guests every night from 7-9pm where drinks are 20% off (drinks in London are expensive so this is a great deal, not to mention Raf the bartender is great).

Day 1 : Jet lag and beyond

When I first arrived, I pushed through the jet lag to drop my stuff at my hostel in Camden and then wandered down to the Camden Markets. It was a beautiful day to wander the stalls and grab a bit of food. From there, I took the underground to British museum and forced myself to walk through the rooms containing the Rosetta Stone, the Easter island head, and the remains of the Parthenon.

Day 2 : Lots of Art, Rain and Beer

The next day, some people from my hostel decided to go to the Tate Modern Museum. We were going to go to Hyde Park, but it was raining pretty much all day, making this impossible. After lunch they went back to the hostel and I headed over to the National Gallery to enjoy some classical and post-impressionist paintings, such as those by Van Gogh, Titian, Cézanne, Vermeer, Seurat, Monet and more. I must have walked at least 10 miles that day because after the Gallery, I wandered up to Buckingham Palace and down to Regent Street. This street is the 5th Ave of London, meaning it has all of the high-end retail stores. I finally got back to my hostel around 7:30pm, just in time for a drink and dinner.

The bar we were headed to that night was an Irish bar called O’Neill’s Soho. We ended up having a smaller group of about 8 of us and had to take a bus for about 20 minutes to get to Chinatown (yes, there is one in London!), where the bar was. The beer there was fairly-priced, it wasn’t too hard to get a drink, and the music was great. After getting drinks, we walked upstairs to dance, where we discovered that it was actually a live band! We proceeded to have quite a few drinks each and when the bar closed around 1:30 or 2, we wanted dumplings (we were in Chinatown after all). Sadly, all the dumpling places were closed and all we could find were fries. We had a lively bus ride home as the Dumpling Crew. Shout out to Ana for taking us to such a great bar and for a fun night!

 

The Flight Out

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Let me tell you, this one might be a doozie. But probably mostly because I was ditzy. But first, please enjoy my basic plane-wing photo (but really the sky was so pretty):

Also, please note that my flight was at 6:25pm.

3:15pm

I was dropped off at the international terminal at the O’Hare International airport in Chicago. We didn’t see the United check in sign outside, but I had my boarding pass on my phone and saw a couple United flights on the screen inside, so I figured we just missed it and proceeded to the ever-dreaded TSA line (to clarify later-facts, international terminal does not offer Pre Check, you just don’t have to take your shoes and coat off nor go through the big scanner).

4:00pm

I get through security. So the next step was to find my gate, C11. Well, all the gate numbers started in M. That’s not right. So I start looking around for someone who can tell me why my international flight’s gate number did not seem to be here in the international terminal. Easier said than done.

I go up to the first person I see at a desk at a gate and ask why my number was a C. Desk people always know what’s up, right? Well not this one. She had no idea as I was not flying on her airline and told me to go to M11. Uhhh probably not going be the solution here as that flight is not going to London. Thus, I came to the conclusion that I was at the wrong terminal.

So I peek at a map and see that my gate number is at Terminal 1 and I am at 5. I find the exit and some nice security guards inform me that United, in fact, has international flights that go out of a domestic terminal.

Great, how do I get there? Take a tram. Easy. Just kidding, tram is closed for construction. So there’s a nice long bus line to get there.

4:18pm

I hop in line and ask the girl in front of me if this is the bus shuttle to terminal 1. She says yeah and the guy in front of me starts asking me about my flight (I am sure I looked very disheveled at this point). He assures me that this bus will get me there and that I will make my flight on time. This is where I want to give a shout out to Customs Dad. Since this nice man worked in customs, he knew the ins and outs of the airport. So thanks for keeping me from freaking out and crying in the airport and I hope I see you when I go through customs in December!

4:55pm

I get to my gate (thank you TSA Pre Check). Yes, in under an hour, I got from inside the completely wrong terminal to the right terminal (a 10-minute drive away), and to my gate. Did I mention I got food and went to the bathroom in that time as well? I guess you could call me an airport master. Or just really fortunate. Probably the latter. If I was a master, I would have gone to the right terminal in the first place. Customs Dad is a master.

Lessons from my experience:1) always check your boarding pass for a terminal number, even if it is international and 2) get TSA Pre Check (or according to Customs Dad, Global Entry is even better).

6:25pm (yes I am at this point on the flight)

Good news: I think this is the best international flight I’ve ever had. When I got on the seat next to me was empty, and was never filled. I repeat, I had an empty seat next to me on a flight. CRAZY RIGHT? Then, they give you pretty large glasses of complimentary wine. The food wasn’t bad and our pilot managed to cut 35 minutes off of our arrival time. Overall, United redeemed itself for flying me out from the terminal that does not make sense. Given that my flight was only $230, I would highly recommend flying internationally with them. Easily the best international (out of three) that I have ever been on.

Goodbyes

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A couple weeks before I left, my boyfriend sent me a long text at 2am. It said pretty much everything I knew but he had never told me. He was going to miss me, but was excited for and supportive of me. He knew how much this semester would mean to me. He would FaceTime me as much as possible. The next day, he told me “I’m a pretty lucky guy to have you around,” A couple days later, he decided he was going to visit me during my semester in France. I’m trying to keep this as un-mushy as possible, but he’s a pretty cool guy.

Two nights before I left, I had gotten home from a four-day music festival in Chicago. As soon as I got home, my boyfriend wanted to facetime me. Then my best friend texted me telling me she needed me to call her. When I mentioned this to my mom the next morning, she said “What’s she going to do for the next five months when she can’t call you?” I assured my mom that she could still call me in Europe. Such distance did not stop us from being ever-available for each other last summer, so why would it now?

The day before I left, I picked my dad up from work. It was my last night home, and he, having studied abroad in college also, shared my excitement for the months to come. He got into the car and immediately explained to me my best options if I missed my flight or if it got delayed. That’s when I realized that this would be the longest I have ever been away from my family. I think that should have scared me a little, but my dad’s excitement told me “hey I know you’ll have a great time and I have confidence in you.”

The day I left, the aforementioned best friend came over to say goodbye and was so excited for me to leave. But what really brought me joy was how jazzed she was to tell my mom about her plans for the upcoming semester to run her first half-marathon. My mom assured her that she would go watch and cheer her on. So that’s how I knew that my best friend had become like a sister to me and that my parents were going to be there for her in my absence.

The airport from which I left gave me the goodbye that struck me the most. My mom drove me to the airport. For background, over the past months through my planning, she always expressed how careful I had to be as I would be traveling by myself for a couple weeks. She was my constant reminder that I needed to keep my safety in mind when traveling. Despite this, when she started crying and hugged me goodbye, she said “I’m going to miss you.” There was no more ‘be safe’s’ left to say. She knew I knew that and like my dad, she has confidence in me. She was going to simply miss my relationship being near.

Hey dad, I am ever grateful your confidence.

Hey boyfriend, I’m a pretty lucky girl too.

Hey best friend, I might be across an ocean, but I’m still here for you.

Hey mom, I’m going to miss you too.

And I am so thankful for all of you and so many more of the amazing people who are supporting and excited for me. And I want to thank each and every one of you for the special goodbye I got to have with you over the last couple weeks. I’ll see you all in five months!

Preparation

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*I meant to post this several weeks ago, but didn’t get around to it until I already arrived in Europe. Oops…I’ll do better in the future

Today, my best friend asked me “How many days until you leave?” After counting on my calendar, I tell her 23. 23. That’s less than a month until I leave to live in another country for four months; to fly internationally by myself for the first time; to live out of a small carry on for a month; and to go to school where I will not know a single person.

While that all is still sinking in for me, I can’t help but think about all of the work that has gone into being able to only think about these things. Now, I don’t have to worry about any application fees (except tuition, but we can ignore that for now), getting into my school in France, my courses not transferring back to La Crosse, my visa, nor the countless other things that stressed me out indefinitely over the last four months. So, if you are considering going abroad at some point in the future, don’t let these things stress you out. Instead, take my tips!

  • Find someone who has studied abroad in your program, region or country to answer your questions.
  • Be ready to shell out a lot for your program. I dropped about $2,000 in application fees, flights, trains, and visa fees ahead of time.
  • Speaking of visas, know your required documents for your appointment and make your appointment as early as you can. Also, make your appointment as early in the day as possible. When the people in front of you aren’t prepared their appointments take longer which pushes later appointments back. This is especially important if you’re going in the summer (busy season). ***if you need any help with French visa process, let me know***
  • Track your flights early. If you have time to travel beforehand, you can see a couple different countries by being flexible with where you fly into.
  • Get TSA Pre-Check or Global Entry. They make getting to your flight on time so much less painful.
  • Make hostel and train reservations ahead of time, especially if you’re travelling in summer because they fill up fast then.
  • Get some quality luggage and travel with only a carry-on and personal item if you’re able.
  • Don’t be afraid to travel alone (if you are confident you can get around)

Honestly, you are in charge of your own experience. The more preparation you have and research you’ve done, the better you are going to feel going into a study abroad experience.