The best semester of my life was spent in Paris!

Paris, c'est magnifique! Everything is magical, from the language, to the food, to the museums and monuments. I was able to take classes in French, reading the texts of my major in their original language. The people and places I had been studying since high school were standing before my eyes. I could walk the streets of Napoleon, or eat at the cafés of Manet. For everyone who is hesitating to go abroad, I urge you to take a leap of faith and discover a completely new world. Things may not be easy (in fact, sometimes they can be downright hard), but that is when I grew the most. Feeling uncomfortable because my host mother didn't know any English, I pushed myself to become better at French so we could communicate more readily. Separated from all of my friends at home, I made new friendships that are going to last me a lifetime. I ate foods I had never dreamed of and saw art I had only read of. My experiences have made me more confident and sure of myself. I am now more spontaneous, and I worry a lot less about the small things that don't matter. I have always been a small town girl, but now I know that I can live and thrive in a big city, especially if it has the culture that Paris does.
My program really helped me make the most of my Paris adventure. IES Paris French Studies introduced me to aspects of the culture that I had never considered, and helped me to foresee cultural problems that could have arisen. They have an excellent range of classes that allowed me to get credit in my major, as well as exploring areas that I wouldn't have been able to do at home, such as the history of Parisian museums, or the history of French photography. Through the program, I was also able to visit places within and around Paris, such as Monet's gardens at Giverny and da Vinci's house in the Loire Valley.
Some advice that I might give future students would be to be ready to be uncomfortable. Studying in a foreign country is going to give you experiences that you would never think to encounter in the US. And while those can be hard to get through at the time, they can give you new insights that you never would have thought to gain, or ways to deal with trying situations when you return home. Be open to new opinions and new ways of doing things; if you are so closed to new experiences that you can't discover the value in a new method, your experience is going to be limited.
Once you get to Paris, you will be bombarded with amazing opportunities. Some of my favorites were wandering through Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, and having a picnic along the Seine as the tourist boats go by. Hit the main tourist sites, like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, but also go to some of the smaller museums, like Musée Marmottan Monet. See the general things, but find your own little corner of Paris, with a go-to café and your favorite outdoor market. And above all, wring all you can out of each day; once you return home, you will miss it so much that it hurts to think about even one day not spent exploring the wonders of Paris.