It?s crazy to think that I?ve already been here in Strasbourg for about a month. I feel like I?ve already seen and experienced so much but I?m so excited for the coming months.?The town of Strasbourg is so cute and the perfect size. We have bakeries and flower shops on every corner, an incredibly easy public transportation system, and beautiful cathedrals and squares.?Everyone has been so friendly too. Our second week here, we had a orientation week for all of the international students with activities every afternoon/ night. We were able to become friends with people from all over the world and form a really cool friends group.
The classes here are VERY different from A&M. I?m taking 8 classes, which correlates to 4 classes back home. They?re all pretty fun classes, like Wine Marketing and Luxury Brand Management. They?re heavily group work and presentation based, which is very different from lectures at A&M. It?s also cool because there are people from all over the world in class. I recently did a group project with 5 other people and I was the only native English speaker. The classes have been really interesting so far, although the scheduling has been a challenge. Some weeks I might have class for 20 or more hours, some weeks only 2. For example, this week, I only had a class on Tuesday from 2-6pm and that was it! The University of Strasbourg is actually really big (the second largest university in France) but the business school is pretty small (about 2600) and located in one building, separated from the main campus, kind of like Wehner. I?m living in a dorm just across the street from the business school. It is so convenient for rolling out of bed and heading to class (especially when I have 8ams). The dorm isn?t the most luxurious (twin beds, community bathrooms, a super shady laundry situation) but I definitely can?t complain because of the location.
The food here has been amazing- the stereotype that all the French eat is bread, cheese, and wine is definitely true and I?m not complaining. There are a lot of cultural quirks that I?m getting used to, like people taking 3 hour lunch breaks or restaurants opening at 8pm. It?s just a very different lifestyle here, which has been very cool to experience.
As far as traveling, I?ve covered 5 countries in a month- crazy! So far, we?ve been in France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and are heading to Austria later today. It is so easy and fun to travel and I can?t wait to do more of it.?My photos won’t upload! I’ll try to figure out how to post some later!