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!

You made it to Reims...now here's more paperwork!

Making it to Paris is so gratifying after all the work you put in to get there, but be prepared because the work isn't over! Here are some things that will hopefully make the process a little smoother:

First off, something I didn't know was that international airlines are SOOO much better than the domestic ones. Book one if you have the choice! Also, I would highly recommend arriving in the morning or afternoon on a weekday (you will not get much done after about 4pm and definitely not on a weekend) and arranging a shuttle from the airport. The welcome guide you will get sent mentions a shuttle (Read all of it by the way), but you have to be proactive in order to actually get it. Email your exchange coordinators at RMS, and they will send you a form you must fill out and send back. If they don't respond, keep trying. Anyway, once you get to France:

-Make sure you have a lot of cash on you! Some places (including my residence) cannot process my credit card because their machine requires one with a chip, which ours do not have. At the stores it is generally not a problem though. Anyway, just bring enough cash for your shuttle ride, your security deposit, your first month's rent, and some more just in case. Keep all your copies of things handy as well since you will need them when you check in.

This bullet point also works for orientation day. Don't assume that you can pay with card here for the bureaucratic stuff. You will need a lot of money for the health insurance (mine was 220 Euros) on your orientation day. Even if you have private insurance in the US, you will still have to purchase this. You will also need housing insurance (mine was 68 Euros). Again, bring your passport, visa, and all your copies of things with you on orientation day.

DON'T GET CASH AT MONEY EXCHANGE PLACES! They rip you off! Get it from your bank for the cash you need ahead of time (you have to wait a few business days so do it in advance!) and get your cash from an ATM in France for the cash you need here. That way you get the bank's rate which is much better.

-Know some key French Phrases! I'm not saying you need to be anywhere close to fluent or be able to understand a lot, but know how to ask things like where the store is because you need toilet paper for your room. Just buy the "Idiot's Guide to French Phrases" and you should be good. Don't expect people to speak English here like they do in Paris. Before I got to RMS and met the other international students and coordinators, I was here for 5 days and only met 4 people who could slightly communicate in French. Just stay patient and friendly, and get used to hand symbols. Once you start school it is a different story though because most of the student body is international and English is their main form of communication.

-Bring outlet adapters/ converters! Buy them before you get here, because you don't want your electronics to die while you are trying to figure out if you can drink the water (which you can) and where to buy a towel/sheets for your bed (which I would recommend just bringing with you). The outlets here are 220, and in the US they are 110, so you will need a voltage converter that you can plug stuff into so they don't fry. For your computer it is a little different. I brought regular 2-prong adapters, so my 3-prong computer plug did not fit into it and I could not charge it. I was without email for 3 days before I was able to find a place that sold the kind I needed (FNAC!) It turns out I did not need a voltage converter because on the back of that little box that is on my power cord, it says "input 100-240V," so all I needed was something to convert the french plug to a 3-prong US plug. If your cord does not have that little box though, don't try to plug it in without a voltage converter!

-Get a French bank account! They will walk you through this at school, but I would highly recommend you do this as soon as you get there instead of waiting. In order to get French assistance with housing (awesome!), you need a bank account. And if you want the funding for February, you need to fill out the application (which RMS will give you directions for) before February starts. You only have a few days to get this done after school starts, so I would recommend just going to town and getting one before you even start. It takes a while to get your debit card as well, which you may need to charge your MONEO card some residences will use for laundry or their cafeteria or vending machines (because US bank cards don't have the chip I mentioned). I just got my bank card yesterday and it is 12 days after school started and 17 days after I got here...I am just glad I brought enough clothes to last me this long! You will need to bring your passport and visa (and your copy of the passport and visa), your written proof of staying at your residence (you will have to ask for this), and your proof of inscription at RMS (They give this to you on your orientation day, but I would see if you can get it sooner. Go to the RMS campus 1 to talk to the international coordinators and they should be able to help you. If you can't get that early, you will have to wait to get your bank card, so bring a lot of underwear and socks.)

I have been here two weeks and I still have pending items that need to be done for my health insurance, funding for my apartment, etc. My best advice is to be patient and make friends quickly with the other exchange students, because they will all be as lost as you! Also, ask a lot of questions from your coordinators if you are stuck. They are VERY helpful and can get you going in the right direction.

Now that the administrative junk is addressed, it is time to just enjoy RMS. There are so many things that they plan for you and things you can do to get involved. The international group plans trips, parties, and dinners for you, so I would go to as many of those as you can! My next blogs will hopefully be more interesting because I will get to talk about the fun stuff! :)

Paperwork, paperwork...and still in the U.S.A.

Since getting to France, I have realized that the title I chose for this blog, "Let's see if I can figure this out," is not only fitting for my start as a blogger, but also for my slightly chaotic start to life in France. People were not lying when they said France was a beautiful bbureaucratic mess! Hopefully the things I write about as I reminisce over the past two weeks, along with my posts in the future, will help anyone who is motivated enough to dig through the complications in order to receive the truly amazing prize of studying in Reims, France.

So let's start by sorting out all of the complications while you are still in the United States. Don't get discouraged when it seems like a lot of work. It is more work to go to France than the other options available, but it is worth it once you get here! Make sure you start a folder and a checklist of all the things you need to accomplish and the dates you need to accomplish them by...because believe me there are many! People should definitely start by going to this website: http://www.consulfrance-sanfrancisco.org/spip.php?article1800#Long-stay-visa-and-residence. Start looking at this as soon as you know you will study abroad, because as soon as you get your acceptance letter from RMS, you will need to get moving!! Pay VERY close attention to the list of documents you need to prepare, and bring double of everything. When it comes to your identification picture, instead of only getting one photo, get FOUR, because you will need two when you get to your residence in France. When it comes to your passport (and visa once you actually receive it!), I am not exaggerating when I say you should print of SIX copies of each. This is because you will need them for a bunch of different processes when you get to France as well.

You will notice on this website that there is a link to Campus France in step 3. You should start your process with Campus France at the beginning of the Semester BEFORE you study abroad. You must apply to Campus France before you apply for your visa, and you can't really do anything to advance your progress until you register with Campus France, pay them, and get the go-ahead from them to start your visa process. The website with the process you need to go through before even applying to your visa is: http://www.usa.campusfrance.org/en/page/study-abroad-or-exchange-students-0, and more information on Campus France can be found here: http://www.usa.campusfrance.org/en. Read, Read, Read!! Prepare yourself so you know what to expect.

After you have completed the Campus France steps and gotten all your documents in order, you will actually need to physically go to the French Consulate in San Francisco. (This is assuming you are a Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, or Northern California resident. If you are a resident of somewhere else, you will need to research where the French Consulate is that you must go to). Make sure you leave yourself plenty of time in San Francisco to get to the Consulate. You do not need to stay the night there because you have a scheduled appointment time, but leave yourself a few hours both before and after your appointment time, just in case. It is really easy to get to the Consulate...just look up the address and get off at the corresponding BART station (the tram that leaves directly from the airport...by the way every city needs one of these!) The Consulate will send you your passport 2-4 weeks after your appointment, so make sure you are not in France yet. Bring a self-addressed envelope if you do not want to be overcharged by FedEx for the shipping.

PHEW! After all this...you actually get to go to France!