Studying in France as Americans: Starting Off Year Two
The summer has ended, fall is in the air, and Maria and I have begun our second year as American master’s degree students at the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne. If you’re new here or just need a reminder, both of our programs are quite a mouthful, so we’ll mention exactly what we’re studying. My program is called Master Gestion de Production, Logistique, Achats parcours Logistique Durable et Management de la Supply Chain, while Maria‘s is named Master Droit Public parcours Intégration Européenne et Gouvernance Globale. Read on to find out what’s been going on with us during the month of September.
At the beginning of the month, we enjoyed a week-long visit from my parents. It had been over a year since we had all spent time together in person, so it was exciting to be able to see each other again. We checked out lots of restaurants and even took a trip to Épernay, the iconic city of champagne.
On September 6th, Maria had her rentrée, or first day of school. Although it was just the beginning of the academic year, her professors didn’t hesitate to jump right into covering material, assigning projects, and talking about important end-of-year objectives. Throughout this year, Maria will be hard at work on her mémoire, or master’s thesis, a classic written assignment completed by final-year master’s degree students in France.
As for me, I got to take advantage of some time off between the end of my internship and the start of classes. My rentrée wasn’t until September 14th and was a smooth reintroduction to being on campus and attending classes. I will be completing the second year of my master’s degree en alternance, meaning I’ll alternate between one week in the classroom and one week at work until the end of my studies next year.
September was also a month full of fun events for us. Through raffles put on by the local transportation company in Reims, CITURA, we won free tickets to two soccer games and a performing arts event in our city!
The first game was between our home team, Stade de Reims, and FC Lorient. Although the game ended in a tie, we really enjoyed attending our first ever professional soccer game in Europe. We drank some beer, ate some fries, and enjoyed this part of French culture that we had never experienced before. We spent the following Sunday at the stadium as well. This time, it was Stade de Reims versus FC Nantes, and we were glad to be able to see our home team walk away with a win!
Our last event of the month was the Festival Jonglissimo, a multi-faceted performing arts event including circus acts, juggling, and acrobatics. We got to see some really interesting performances – one that focused on story telling and another that focused on sound and movement.
September flew by, and we’re sure that the upcoming months will be just as busy! Let us know in a comment what you’ve been doing for the past month, and don’t hesitate to ask us any questions you may have as well.
Check out this month’s update video!
Check out our other monthly updates!
- September 2020
- October 2020
- November 2020
- December 2020
- January 2021
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- September & October 2022
Check out a weekend in our life as American students in France!
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