Pre-Departure Thoughts

Hey! My name’s Jimmy, and I’m a rising senior at Amherst College. I’m leaving for Paris in two days to attend my fall semester abroad with IES Abroad. A couple of things have been weighing on my mind in the past few weeks and even months, so I figured it could be helpful to share some of my thoughts for my first blog post. 

Firstly, the build-up of excitement for this semester has been amazing. In college, I’m always excited for the fall since I get to see all my friends again and start making fun plans for the semester and school year ahead. However, this time, the idea of living in a whole new country and meeting so many new faces presents an entirely different level of anticipation. I really can’t wait to explore as much of France (and Europe) as I can and experience it all with the people I meet there. As a senior at Amherst, I don’t know of any classmates or friends who will be studying in Paris with me, so I’m looking forward to starting from scratch and building a web of friends when I get there. 

This summer, I got a good introductory experience for all of that by living in NYC for an internship. As a kid born and raised in the suburbs of Massachusetts, the bustling streets of Manhattan (among other things) were truly a sight to behold. Not only that, but it was my first time really living on my own and taking care of every aspect of my life by myself. It was an amazing experience, and I fully expect my stay in France to be equally as transformative and fun. 

No doubt, I’m a little nervous to start from square one and find my way in a country where I don’t speak the language particularly well (more on that later), but I know that as long as I’m there safe and sound, I’ll make the most out of it. I’m not that naive that I don’t have any concerns about the next four months of my life, but I know that I’m experienced enough and resourceful enough that I’ll figure it out should any issues arise. Although living in France will invariably present novel and unexpected problems, the solutions won’t be any different than how I’ve worked through my daily issues in the States. In short, I’ll figure it out. 

Secondly, I wanted to mention how much preparation has gone into this semester already. There were a bunch of things that I had to get done this summer. Most notable was getting my French Study Visa at a visa center in New York, which turned out to require more preparation than I had expected and ended up being an experience that was way too eventful for my liking. 

Throughout this preparation process, I’ve realized that getting these things done and out of the way as soon as possible has helped calm my nerves about things, such as flying and arriving at my housing on time and actually making sure that I’m enrolled in the program. Even though some of the preparation since the springtime hasn’t been the most exciting stuff, getting them done quickly has given me peace of mind. 

Thirdly, this touches on the preparation, or lack thereof, that I just mentioned, as I simply am not at the level of French that I want to be at right now. I got a lot busier during the summer than I had expected, so I ended up not practicing as much as I had hoped. Fortunately, the IES Abroad program I’m attending has classes in English and requires you to take an intensive French class, so I’ll be focusing on getting caught up to speed with my language skills as soon as possible. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes. 

There’s a lot more that I could write about before leaving in two days, but these three topics have been at the front of my mind in the past few weeks and months, so I figured it would make sense to mention them. Also, you might be able to tell, but I have not written a blog before, so bear with me as I work on a format or style that works best for these posts. Now, hopefully, this first post wasn’t too boring - I’m sure the next one will have a lot more substance and excitement.