Studying in France as Americans: French Holidays and New Semester
This month of January was fittingly one of pleasant endings and new beginnings. Maria and I are glad to have completed yet another month at the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne and are excited to embark on our final semester as American master’s degree students in Public Law and Logistics in France. Continue reading for more details about how we spent the month in Reims, France.
We started off this month with a celebration at a longtime friend’s place to ring in 2022. On December 31st, after I finished at work and Maria’s classes ended, we headed to the train station only to find out that our train had been cancelled. Luckily, we caught a ride with some new friends headed to the same place. We spent time chatting over apéro, or pre-dinner drinks, and ended the night with a delicious, home-cooked meal.
Since I’m in alternance, the entirety of my winter break was spent at work. On January 3rd, my normal schedule that alternates between one week of classes and one week of work picked back up. I was eager to get back into the classroom and see what this semester’s classes would be like.
On January 6th, we celebrated Epiphany the French way – by indulging in a galette des rois, or a king cake. A small trinket, known in French as a fève, is hidden each galette. Once the cake is cut, whoever has the slice containing the trinket becomes king or queen of the day. This year, I got the fève – a tiny minion figurine from the movie Despicable Me.
Maria’s final exam week began on January 10th. She studied diligently throughout the whole of December and the beginning of January to prepare for her written and oral exams. Though finals week is always stressful, she felt satisfied with her performance and was relieved to finally be done with her intensive daily studying.
Maria began her internship search at the beginning of the month. Despite COVID-19 making job hunting more complicated than usual, she’s already succeeded in securing three interviews. She is thrilled to be in talks with potential internships after just a month of applying and is optimistic that she will find the right one for her.
Moreover, Maria’s final semester of classes began on January 24th. Despite the usual administrative scheduling difficulties, everything has gone well thus far. She’s especially looking forward to her class about the political challenges for a democratic Europe.
Our final grades for the semester were released on the last day of the month, and we both passed! Maria finished with a GPA of 15,383/20 and I earned a GPA of 13,183/20. We are both proud of our hard work and grateful that it paid off!
As you may already know, I love studying foreign languages in my free time. I can speak a little bit of a whole lot of languages, and I get hooked on new languages pretty regularly. This month, I’ve been studying Mandarin Chinese nearly every day, and I really like it! Using tools like Duolingo, HelloChinese, and AnkiApp, I’m slowly but surely building my vocabulary.
How did you kick off the new year? Any big plans for 2022? Let us know in a comment!
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2 Comments
Lisa Fleury
Congratulations to both of you on your stellar results!
Jalen & Maria
Thank you!