The Highlight of my College Career

If I could do another semester in Cannes, I would in a heartbeat.

I chose Cannes in the spring of 2013 because I did not want to be in as big of a city as Paris, but I still wanted that same cultural spark - and trust me, you get plenty of that during the film festival in May.

I studied at the Collège International de Cannes with the rest of the Americans in my AIFS group (there were about 40 of us in all) as well as a bunch of international students from all over the world. My various dorm neighbors were from Mexico, Japan, Iceland, South Africa, and so on. The school has a small campus, so it immediately feels like home. You can choose between a homestay or living at the dorm - I chose the dorm and it's pretty much the standard dorm experience (except that I could see the Mediterranean from my window, a nice touch). The style of the collège is very bright and warm. I liked the food in the cafeteria, but I'm not a picky eater and I know some people were less than fond of it. As long as you try things with an open mind, you should be able to survive. They do serve brunch on the weekends though, which is the greatest.

We had language classes every morning, 5 days a week. Students have the chance to move up in classes, so if you start out at maybe an intermediate French level, you can end up in advanced class by the end of the semester based on your language progression. Classes aren't extremely difficult, as long as you put in some effort and speak up. I was in an advanced class, and we did a little bit of grammar, but mostly we focused on listening exercises and just talking to each other. It was a lot more fun than classes back home, since usually we talked about whatever we liked - like movies, sports, food, and even the occasional explanation of Ryan Gosling's attractiveness (our French teacher didn't see it). Focusing on talking was a major help to my language skills, and I left France very proficient at the language.

You also take seminars that meet once a week. I'd recommend the Société Française class.

Actually living in Cannes is a lot of fun. The beaches are wonderful, and the town itself has a lot of character (especially the old town with its narrow, cobblestone streets). Food along Le Suquet (in the old part of town) is really good. It's only a couple of euros and a 40 minute bus ride to get to Nice, and there you have that city or the airport to go fly off to some other really cool destination.

Cannes was a great place to study in the spring because of the film festival. My AIFS resident adviser, Sandrine, helped me find an internship for the festival that went alongside my journalism major. So for the majority of it, I blogged about the festival and got to talk to, photograph, and occasionally interview some famous actors and actresses at the festival (one of my highlights was actually getting to speak French with Marion Cotillard). The film festival is a ton of fun, whether you intern at it or just go as a fan. AIFS gets you passes that get you into the movies, and you have the chance to go to the premieres and walk on the red carpet.

Overall, it was a great experience, and AIFS was a really good program to go with. Their resident director, Sandrine, was more than helpful. She set up a lot of great excursions every week, like Monaco, the Verdon Gorge, and cool, local towns we wouldn't have been able to get to on our own (as well as the fun, bigger trips like Paris, Florence, London, and Provence). She also helped us out when we were in a tight bind, like when my friend got a kidney infection and we had to rush off in an ambulance to the hospital. She took care of everything.

Anyway, I fully recommend studying abroad. You won't regret it, and the Cannes program is great.