Paris will always be a home!

Four years ago, when I was looking for my dream college and University one of my requirements was that I had to be able to Study Abroad and specifically go to Paris. When I got onto my campus at the University of Vermont, I told my academic advisor our first meeting that we need to arrange my 4-year course schedule to include a semester in Paris. I was determined to do everything in my power to go to Paris, France.

While researching different programs, my school really encouraged me going to an exchange program or one that was run by my university. There was ONE school my university called a “direct exchange” and it was not in Paris, so I immediately crossed it off of my list. I found IES and loved that it is an American program, based out of Chicago, so they had an understanding about the college system and life in the US. Then once I applied, I got my packet of information to take to the French Consulate or Embassy. They made it so easy, and I know other friends of mine who were going to other countries with other programs, had such a hard time getting their visa, but if you go through IES as long as you follow every direction to a T, you will have no problem getting your Visa.

The classes were amazing, and the professors caring about you and the course subject. They also really encouraged applying the lessons even in marketing to go and explore Paris and the surrounding countries.

I studied the French culture all throughout high school (my high school French teach is a member of the family who started Fragonard Perfumer), and I wasn’t going to Paris to just take classes and then to travel to other places. I really wanted to live and absorb the culture that I had learned about though my teacher’s stories and things I read in textbooks.

Probably the highlight of my time in Paris, was the program sponsored trip to go to the Loire river valley to see the famous castles. I actually did a huge research project about one in high school, and that particular castle was the first one we got to visit on the trip. It was amazing to see in real life something that I had only seen online and in textbooks.

The second opportunity I had was to study art. I grew up only an hour and a half from the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, so very quickly I fell in love with Monet, but that museum cycled out their paintings. I had the opportunity to go to the Musée D’Orsay (impressionist’s museum) (for free because I had a student visa) and see the work in real life, then go to Giverny (Monets’ home and gardens) (with the program), and then see the exhibit (the day after it opened) looking at how Monet re-created his most famous paintings 5 years before he died, while he was going blind.

This program also allowed you three different living options. I had a friend who lived in a dorm like room, an apartment, and I lived with a host family. My host mom, was truly like my mom. She was excited to get to know me, and I was excited to get to know her. I also had the opportunity to get to know her grandchildren and other children, besides the one that stilled lived at home. It was also awesome, because she spoke English, but would only speak to me in French because she knew that I’m in Paris to learn and use my French, not my English.

For the first 3-4 weeks after I returned, I would speak in French (luckily my mom is fluent in French), but my poor dad had no idea what I was saying.

This program really allowed me to explore other things outside of my business curriculum, but also allowed me to do everything I could’ve possibly wanted to while I was abroad!