The One With The Arrival

Bonjour Toute le Monde!

I am back for another helpful (hopefully) guide on all things studying abroad. After this one I'll start actually getting into the exciting part of being abroad, the traveling! But before I was able to start traveling, I had to get to France first. I have been to France twice before so I kinda knew what it was like and a bit on how to prepare. I knew that I had to get a phone plan, but this time I decided to get an esim since I was going to be there for a longer time. Choosing the phone plan honestly wasn't that bad. I just looked up some of the popular plans and then created a list of what each of them offered and for what cost. I ended up going with Saily because there was a deal going at the time which made it the cheapest option and it honestly had some of the best reviews I had seen. So it all worked out. I went with the 50GB for 90 days, and I know that I'll be here for over 90 days, but they let you add more days/GB if you need it.

The next thing I had to figure out was housing insurance. This, again, was very easy. ESSEC supplied us with 3 companies that they recommended using. So I did the same thing as the phone plan. I listed out the costs and the different coverage plans and then picked the one I liked best. Honest, all of these plans were super cheap, like less than $10 a month cheap. I ended up just paying an upfront cost of around $60 that covered everything I would ever need over the span of my entire time. They gave me my coverage certificate instantly which was really nice.

Travel plans was the hardest one to pick. You technically don't have to get one, but I had a free month before classes started and I knew that I wanted to travel. I had used EURail before and I liked it, so I decided to get it again. But the difficulty is figuring out which plan to go with. They have unlimited passes for up to 3 months. Obviously, these were the more expensive options, and so I wasn't sure if I wanted it. I didn't know how much traveling I was actually going to do. So, I started to look at the day-by-day passes. I ended up getting the 15 days over 2 months pass. This means that for 2 months, I could use the pass, as much as I wanted to, for 15 days. I could get as many train or bus rides (with their approved lines) as I wanted for those 15 days. And I could choose when I wanted to use a day pass by just activating the pass on the travel day. I ultimately decided to go with 15 days because it was the longest pass they had for the day-by-day passes. There is I think 4 options to choose for the day passes, and all of them are under $500. Honestly, I think it's worth it. Even if you just get the 3-day pass, it'll be cheaper than paying for some of these trains. I mainly use my pass for traveling outside of the country or too faraway places in France. If I want to travel nearby, I just buy a ticket because it's not worth using my pass for. Now the reason I say it's worth it is because I looked up the ticket prices for the trips I was planning on taking, and each ticket is over $100. So, I figured it was worth my money to get 15 day passes for around $500. For traveling withing Ile-De-France (the region I'm in), I got a IDF Mobilites pass for this month. Cost me over $100 and I didn't use it as much as I thought I would so I'm probably not going to get it again. I would rather pay the $3 per trip, especially since classes are going to start up soon and so I won't have as much time to travel or go to Paris. IDF was a pain to get set up though, because they don't allow people with US numbers to create an account. I had to send the signup code to one of my French friends. So, just be aware of that if you ever go to Il-De-France and want to use public transportation.

Picture of the Eiffel Tower from when I first got to Paris

The Gates of Hell sculpture by August Rodin, can be viewed in the Museum of Rodin

Anyways, after I got those 3 things figured out, I was set to go to France and start my study abroad journey. Being in France was amazing and just knowing that I was going to be living there for a couple months just made being there feel so different from when I was just visiting for a short trip. The first week was pretty chaotic, mainly because my parents came with me and we traveled a bit, but we mainly stayed in Paris and so it was a bit hard for me to actually start settling down into my home in Cergy. But the time spent with them was really fun and they were able to meet some of my friends, who are also attending ESSEC with me, which I was happy about. In all honesty, I wasn't really all that sad when they left. I know that a lot of people have this emotional parting with their family when they go abroad, but I'm from Wisconsin and so to me it just felt like another semester away from home, nothing really all that different.

Pasta from my birthday dinner with my parents and some friends. Yes, I purposely planned my arrival so I could celebrate my 21st birthday in Paris.

The best hot chocolate/tea shop in London. I highly recommend the sticky toffee pudding hot chocolate, it's so good that I get it each time I go to Europe.

Well, that's all for today! Thanks for reading, and next time I'll really start getting into my experiences abroad. I'm actually so excited because I have seen some amazing things since arriving. Until then~