Paris

One of the best things about living in Reims is that it is only 45 minutes away from Paris by TGV (the high-speed train). That means that you can go there for a day or for the weekend, but you do not have to deal with the massive amounts of people cramming into the metro as you try to get to and from school every day. If you get the SNCF 12-25 card (the discount card from the transportation company for people under 26), then it only costs about 24 Euros round trip. Just an FYI, the 12-25 card costs 50 Euros, but if you are planning to travel, it is easily worth it because you get anywhere from a 20% to 60% discount on each trip. Normally a trip to paris would be about 40 Euros or more.

I love spending time in Paris. Since it is such a big city, there is always something you can do there. Even just walking around the city exploring the sights, shops, and restaurants is fun since they are all so unique! You can spend a whole day there just sight seeing, and it would be worth it. The metro is very easy to navigate, and you can get a day pass for 7 Euros which whill take you to all parts of the city. I would say just go and explore! If you start at the St. Michelle plaza, it is a great centrally located area with a ton of great places to check out.

One thing I would highly recommend is going to see the Palace of Versailles. If you show your student ID, you get in for free. I would also take advantage of the free headset you can get since there is not a lot of written information around the Palace. Everything there is absolutely stunning, and I would allow for 4-5 hours to see it all. You can even rent golf carts or a boat if you would like to explore the gardens that way! Once the weather warms up and the flowers start to bloom, I will go again.

The museums are amazing, and I would definitely take the time to go to them. The Louvre is huge, so you will probably need a whole day there! If you want to do something on a smaller scale (but equally as amazing), I would recommend the Museum d'Orsay. These museums you can wander through at your own pace, and unless you are really interested I would not pay for a guided tour. There is plenty of written information you can read on your own. If you like pre-Columbian artifacts from around the world, the Museum Quai Branly is one you should absolutely check out.

If you visit the website "New Paris," then you will also find a free walking tour. I have not personally been on it, but my friend says it is really informative and she highly recommends it. I think I will do that on my next trip to Paris.

I like Paris way better than Reims, so if you ever get bored, just hop on the train to Paris! It is very exciting living so close to such an amazing city!

Everyday life in Reims

Reims is a much smaller town that what I imagined, but it is a nice place to live. The bus and tram transportation is excellent here, so you never really have a problem getting to where you need to go, assuming it is before about midnight. If you are going to stay out later at one of the bars or clubs, nothing is so far away that you cannot walk home.

During the week, things are pretty slow. I will go to class with my friends, have lunch with them, and then go to the gym with the few who want to go (Europeans are not as in to working out as Americans are!) Since the gym at RMS is terrible, we pay 30 Euros a month to go to a different gym called l'orange bleue. It is small, but it has nice machines and group classes which are fun. Then we either go shopping downtown, go to the grocery store, get some dinner, or just go back to our places if there is nothing going on that night. All in all, the town is pretty quiet during the week.

We will usually get dinner together once a week at one of the restaurants down town, and there are a lot of great ones to try! That is probably the best thing France has going for it actually--the food. Everything I have tried here has been excellent (which explains the need for a gym membership!). I must say the bread, cheese, desserts, and champagne are some of my favorite things about living here :)

We will usually go out on a Friday or Saturday night (or Thursday is actually the best night to go out if there is no class on Friday) to the main section of town (there is only one so it is impossible to miss). A big group of us will go to one of the bars or clubs there. We created a Facebook group for just us exchange students, so if there is anything going on or anyone wants to do something, they just write it in the group. There are plenty of other young adults out as well, and the town becomes pretty lively.

Other than hanging out downtown with friends, there really isn't that much to do here after you have seen all the touristy stuff, like the champagne houses and churches. I think the best part is actually the proximity to other great places to travel to. You can take the train over the weekend to a variety of other places within France, or you can take cheap flights (check Ryanair or Easyjet) to other places in Europe. I would recommend setting up as many trips as you can while you are here, since there are endless possibilities here and it is pretty cheap if you just stay in a hostle or couch surf. Sometimes they are even arranged for you by BDI, the student association group here. Even if you just want to take a day trip to Paris, you can do that for about 24 Euros round trip (if you buy the 12-25 card for the train, which I would recommend doing), and it only takes you 45 minutes by train.

Basically, just make friends and be social, then you won't get bored!

RMS: Not your typical university

Attending Reims Management School (RMS) has been a good experience so far, but it is much different than other universities. First, we only take one class at a time. I love this. It is so nice to only have to concentrate on one subject! Our class schedule is very inconsistent, but a day's course could be from 9:30am-12:30pm, 2pm-5pm, or both of those times if you do not attend every day during the week. So far, we had our French class for the first four weeks, then we received a one week vacation. Now we have a management course, and a four-day weekend following the final presentation. We have 3 more courses coming up and two more week-long vacations. It is a very nice set-up for an international student who wants to travel!

In terms of difficulty of these courses, it is nothing to be worried about. The courses are interesting and I have been learning a lot, but there are very few homework assignments and tests. It is nothing compared to what we do in the states. I think the most valuable part of being here is not necessarily the formal education, but what you learn from every other source by simply just living here and talking to people. Also, in order to pass the course, the French system requires that you receive a 10 out of 20, which is almost impossible not to receive.

For one single subject over a four-week period, you could have anywhere from 3-6 professors teaching the course. Some are guest speakers, and others are people you will have more than once. In a way, it is nice to receive another person's point of view, but it is also inconvenient at times.

The school itself is very small. There are two campuses within walking distance of each other, but you never have to walk between them in the same day since you only have one long class which is sometimes separated by a 90-minute lunch. There is a cafeteria with cheap lunch (3.90 Euros), and a little cafe where you can get snacks or a light meal. Since the school is so small, you are always around your fellow exchange students, and you usually share the same course with them. It makes it very easy to make close friendships.

Although very few people in the city speak anything other than French, people at the university will usually speak English since there is such a large international population. They also offer French classes once a week if you would like to continue learning throughout the semester.

In terms of extra-curricular activities, there are not very many compared to the University of Hawaii. There are certain clubs, but the things they sponsor are usually parties (which are fun). They do not have a good gym on campus, and the sports teams were formed before we arrived. They do have the occasional cooking class or wine/champagne tasting event though. You just have to sign up for all the different Facebook groups, and then you will get notifications of different events going on.

Overall, the professors and other students have been very friendly at RMS, and I have enjoyed my not-so-stressful classes thus far!