API: Experience Grenoble, France (Scholarships Available)

My experience in Grenoble was amazing! and API made it that way. I was placed with the perfect family and was surrounded by cool and fun people the entire time. I was enrolled in the language intensive program and thought it was great. There was class for four hours monday through friday. It sounds a little crazy but the teachers are really nice and they make the class interesting. I learned a lot about familiar french and the culture and we even had a few field trips! I stayed in Grenoble close to five months and I could see and hear my french speaking skills improve each week. I would recommend API Grenoble to any person that asks.

Studying in Grenoble, France was the best decision I could have made. I wanted to improve my French abroad, but I decided Paris wasn't the city for me as I knew it was possible to get around speaking English there.

Grenoble was perfect because the locals were so welcoming and were quite patient with our developing French. They were also interested in why we were in Grenoble and how we liked it. We easily made friends with French college students by accidentally becoming language buddies. Many of our conversations were bilingual and it was an amazing experience.

Going to a university in France was an interesting experience. It was the complete opposite of my home university and took some getting used to. However, it was a learning experience and taught me a lot about myself and my learning styles.

As for API, I could not have chosen a better program. My program manager in the US was incredibly helpful during the entire application and pre-departure process. She answered my numerous emails and was quick to get me any documents that I might have been missing. My resident directors in Grenoble were the sweetest women and took good care of us. They were a phenomenal resource adjusting to France and provided invaluable advice on getting along with our host families.

In all honesty, I would not have changed anything about my study abroad location. While a challenging experience, it ended up being incredibly positive. The combination of API and Grenoble was perfect for me and I wished I spent an entire year there.

I loved my experience with API Grenoble - I learned French, I made lifelong friends, and I experienced something I will never forget. I recommend studying abroad to just about everyone now, because it had such a positive impact on my college career. If I could, I would certainly do it all over again.

The residential staff was fantastic; for the week of orientation in Paris, I got to know the other people on my program because of the fantastic cultural activities we participated in, like visiting the top of Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. We also had ample free time to get to know each other, so I didn't feel like I was in a summer camp, constantly supervised. Once we got to Grenoble, the residential staff helped us with everything like reimbursing us for taxi money, making doctor's appointments if we were sick, and counseling us if we had any personal problems. Their office really was a home away from home.

My host family was a fabulous experience - API somehow matched me with the perfect host family for my wants and needs. In my house, I was free to come and go as I wished, but at the same time, I had dinner with my family every night (fantastic home cooked traditional French dishes) and my host mother would ask me what I did everyday, just like my actual mother would. When I got sick, my host mom drove me to doctor's appointments and brought my dinner down to me in my room, which was very considerate, considering I wasn't her actual child.

The academics were the only thing lacking in this program. My grammar teacher was retiring the next year, and perhaps that's why it was somewhat lackluster, but whenever we were assigned homework, it wasn't a necessity that we have it done the next day, if at all. I learned French because of the constant exposure to it everyday, not because of what I learned in school (However, I'm sure that helped.). The electives were a bit more rigorous, but not by much. The point is, I got what I wanted: a carefree semester to travel around Europe, because I had enough academic freedom to do so.

The Grenoble night life was very lively and frankly, I loved it. Everything started Wednesday night and ended Friday night, which was fine by me. Everyone downtown was very nice and helpful, and I always had an interesting conversation with someone new every time I went out. It was a great experience! I felt safe because I had a group of people I went out with, as well as people that lived close to me that could walk me home if I felt like I needed it (which was rare). The transportation system (tram + bus) was very reliable, and I used it often- no complaints there. They closed at 2am (we could always take a taxi), but I was close enough that walking back didn't bother me if I needed to.

If given the chance, I would definitely study abroad again. In fact, I'm about to live in Paris for a year for my graduate studies and I couldn't be more excited to plunge myself into French culture again. And it all started with API!