Stephanie Chen: The Start of a New Journey

After continuous planning, the final day has arrived. It was time for me to take on this study abroad experience. I have decided to make this experience worthwhile by travelling around Europe before school starts. I took a trip to Copenhagen, Prague, Athens, and Ios for two weeks, then flew back to Paris. When I arrived at Paris CDG airport, a French student from Sup de Co picked me up and helped me purchase my train ticket to Amiens. The French student told me that I had two minutes to get myself and my luggage onto the train. When the train arrived, I threw my bags into the train and hopped on. I was laughing really hard because I could barely lift my luggage, let alone throwing it into the train. Tip #1: bring as little as possible or work out those arm muscles beforehand.

After 1h30mins, I arrived at Amiens. It was a beautiful small town. I was fortunate that two French students picked me up from the train station and helped me with my luggage. They took me to the school to get my accommodations sorted out and then brought me to my house. Accommodation standards are quite different in France, but the place I’m staying at is considered to be the typical French house. So I am certainly getting the complete French living experience. My place is just 2 minutes away from the school and is located in the centre of the St.Leu district.

The first thing I did was unpacked my bags, then went exploring after. The town was small and there were a lot of people enjoying their day at cafes and bars. People are definitely much more laid back here. Everything is within walking distance and there is no need for public transportation.

Like most places in Europe, everything closes on Sunday. I later learned from a French professor that it is the law in France to have shops close on Sunday for people to spend time with their families. If store owners decide to keep their shops open, then they are required to pay a fine that costs about 200€-300€.

Language was definitely one of my challenges in Amiens. Not a lot of people speak English and so it was quite difficult to communicate what I need. But with the use of Google translate, French-English dictionary and two weeks of French classes, my French is getting better. Tip #2: take a French course prior to travelling to France, this will certainly help.

Another challenge that I encountered was with the French keyboard. It is very different compared to the ones that I use in Canada. It took me awhile to type one sentence because I had to search for every key and symbol. This was certainly a learning experience.

It’s been three weeks since I arrived and I’ve already met many international students. I got to know where everyone is from and little about themselves. We all attended social events and had great times together. One of the international students created a facebook page where all students could share information and updates on upcoming events. The great thing about study abroad is to be able to meet someone new and to learn something new every day. These experiences certainly strengthened my capability to adapt to change. This includes eating a lot of baguette and cheese.