1-11-11 (RM, France)
The second week of courses started this week and so far everything is still pretty basic, but stimulating. The quality of the education we are getting here is, IMO, far superior to back home. I think it is because IFP requires all their students to be sponsored from business or industry or pursuing a joint masters degree from a partner university. They know we are all very capable individuals and treat us as such.
Personally, I love the price and variety of cheese here. I got an awesome blue cheese for less than 2 euro at Carrefour and ate it with some yummy baguette. Sweet. I also bought some peanut butter and jam to have on hand in case I run out of proper food. It will do in a pinch and the jam is definitely awesome. Blackberry jam, amazing. I also got a few more eggs and meat for breakfast dishes.
I'm really glad that I have had experience traveling and living on my own in the past. I'm sure this experience would be much scarier if I hadn't been living around the country during the Ron Paul campaign and giving it a shot at living in Southern California a year or two back. I'm adjusted to life here quite easily and I'm not really experiencing any culture shock that some Americans get from traveling and living abroad. French people seem pretty polite and many random people will stop to chat with you simply because you are American or look like you need help. A really nice Chinese/French women helped us order food at a restaurant and spoke at length with me and Ben about her husband having worked for IFP.
Cost of living (except for rent of courses) has been considerably cheaper and more reasonable than expected. I get a good, quality lunch for around 4 euro per day and my trip to the grocery store plus the frozen food store for the week only ran 24 euro. This sets up nicely for some extra money for weekend trips into Paris and maybe some more fun trips to other places (Prague maybe?) in the future. I'm torn between wanting to visit Munich and Prague. All the beer drinkers tell me to go to Munich, all of the ladies men tell me to go to Prague.
Things started of so poorly but I'm happy to say that everything has rapidly and drastically improved since classes started. I can't say enough positive things about the quality of teaching here by the professional, industry-oriented staff, and of my fellow students. Everyone seems like a stellar individual and I'm having a lot of fun just meeting new people and listening to stories and ideas about where they come from. In the age of globalization and integrated markets, it seems like a must for people to have international exposure at some point in their younger years. I know I made the right choice coming here and since have no regrets.
No comments:
Post a Comment