(Some of us at a wine chateau in Saint-Emilion right outside of Bordeaux)

The most interesting and enjoyable thing to me about Bordeaux and this whole experience abroad has been the variety of culture  among all of the students here at BeM.  BeM has a large focus on international studies, and consequently, there is a large international student population.  There are people from literally all over the world here.  It’s interesting to take a step back and see how the rest of the world operates, in their habits, their communication, their views, their presentation in and out of the classroom, their food, their partying, and just their all-around persona.  In many ways, we’re not all so different, and in many other ways, we’re very different.  Our similarities and differences have helped us build a very unique student culture vibe.  I’ve developed some really great friends and had some really awesome experiences since I’ve been here.

   

 (Hassan (left), myself (right), and our very good Basque friend, Jon (center), glowing for a show in Paris)

Since the school has such a large focus on international studies, we spend a good amount of time in our classes looking at subjects from an international perspective.  For instance, when we split into teams for case studies, it’s interesting to see how different the approaches taken are among the different teams.  Or even more so, it’s REALLY interesting to be a part of a team composed of students from three or four different countries, proposing different solutions among us, and working together to comprise a final solution for the case.  I know that this international experience is greatly preparing me for future ventures of my own that will indeed involve intercultural teamwork.

The French students of BeM are very involved.  There are many student organizations, such as Melting Potes, the international student organization that has helped a lot in integrating us into the student life here, The Sports Association, The Art Association, and many more.  All of them are always organizing different events and trips and parties, so it’s been very easy to get to know new people, both French and international students.  This experience has been a blast so far, in meeting new people, developing good friendships, traveling, and learning in a little different style.  Anyone who is considering this abroad experience, I would highly encourage you to take it.  I myself was a little unsure when this opportunity just presented itself to me out of nowhere, thanks to Allie Goatley.  But the experience has been a once in a lifetime opportunity that I’m so glad I jumped on.

-Matt Eldridge

My apologies that this post is coming so late, but better now then never!

So this is going to be essentially part one of two posts; one about life in Bordeaux and the other about my travels around Europe.

Life in Bordeaux:

Bordeaux is a smaller city of around 1 million inhabitants (including the suburbs around the main city), in the region of Aquitaine in the southwest of France. Technically our school is located in Talence, which also happens to be where I live, but it is a only a short 20-30 minute walk and tram ride from the main city. The center of Bordeaux is a gorgeous old European town complete with stone walkways, giant arches, a gothic cathedral, and a beautiful riverside walkway. The city is full of small cafes and restaurants, but also has a wide variety of shopping. In fact one roadway is one of the longest shopping stretches in Europe, Rue St Catherine (options vary from inexpensive to very expensive). Bordeaux is most famous for being the center of the major French wine region, and as you traverse from store to market to cafes to restaurants you will notice the incredible wine options. Some supermarkets have wine sections that rival in size to their food sections. So obviously while you are here you have to try a variety of the local flavors. Unfortunately I have only been to one vineyard (chateau) but I hope to visit a few more as the weather is warming up.

As for school life here, it works significantly different then back home. Let me start with an introduction to BeM (pronounced as it is spelled and not by each letter individually). The Bordeaux ecole de Management is a graduate school that students enter after their first two years of university. It is a private school and at around 6000 Euros per year, it is considered on the expensive side for education. Most of the students start with some more basic undergrad business classes before they choose one of the many MBA degree paths offered. Our path as exchange students is the basic management degree but there are a variety of specialty degrees here, including a Wine MBA. Each semester is broken up into a series of three week sequences (4 in the fall and 6 in the spring). During the spring you have two separate one week breaks that occur between sequences 6 and 7 and 8 and 9. Basically you take only one class for 3 weeks, do all the projects, cases, papers, and exams and then you are finished with that class. They feel a bit like UofL’s May semester (if you have taken a course during the May Summer Semester). However you will find that during these 3 weeks your teacher may vary from day to day and your schedule can be very erratic. Some days we had the same teacher for 6 hours (four 1.5 hour periods), you may have multiple teachers in one day, and some days you might not even have class. The exam, if it exists, is almost always on the last Friday of the sequence. Also, the school has its own cafeteria, but a lot of us have found it better to walk up the street about 10 minutes to a student cafeteria called the Crous. There you get an entrée, salad, and desert for only 2.85 euro which is about as cheap as any meal will come in France. The students at BeM also are very involved and there are always school group sponsored parties and events going on throughout the week and on weekends. Overall, even if the format is significantly different, going to school at BeM feels a lot like any other college experience, which is definitely a good thing!

(this is not me in the picture, it is our friend Jon from the Basque Country)

Outside of school, life in France can be…interesting. From my experience, which includes traveling to multiple other European countries and living in Spain, the cost of living in France is very high; much higher than those of us who came here anticipated. If you do not live in Domofrance (which is BeM’s equivalent to a dorm) expect to pay higher rent, gas, electric, water, and internet bills. Also coming to Bordeaux in the spring makes it very difficult to find accommodation because most places only offer 1 year leases and almost all of leases are started at the end of summer or the beginning of fall. Matt and I found a place in Talence that some former students had used during the fall, but had returned home for the spring. We are located about a 30 minute walk from school in one direction and about 30 minutes from the Bordeaux city center in the other direction. Eating out is very expensive, even fast food. For example, a McDonald’s Menu (McDs is incredibly popular here) can cost between 6-7 Euros. Eating out a restaurant will cost a minimum of 15 Euros for food only (not including any beverage). Like most students during college, we learn to live a lot off pasta and sandwiches because they are cheap! Also the Boulangeries (Bakeries) have delicious baguettes that I eat almost every day. On a side note, I think I have upwards of 25+ croissants since I have been here. The best advice I can give any student coming to France, is learn to live as cheap as possible and then safe your money for traveling and weekend excursions.

I will be back with part 2 of this post that includes some of the many trips I have taken with friends during this study abroad!

                Traveling in Germany is an experience in itself…  As one of the students who had the most trouble following the train schedules I discovered the easiest way find the trains and departure times.  Realizing who important this is for future students I will share my secrets with you.  The easiest way to find trains and departing times is to use the internet.  If you go to the website www.bahn.de you will be able to access the schedules.  There is a drop down link at the top of the webpage where you can select the language of the page.  Once you have changed to English, or any other language you like, all you have to do is enter the departing station or town and the destination.  Be sure to remember that they will use military time when telling you the departure and arrival times for the trains.  Also be sure to check what gate the train is departing from so you won’t miss it.   Now I realize that things happen and train schedules change, most of the time they will announce those changes over the intercom at the station (in German). 

                If you don’t have access to the internet there are red ticket machines at the main train stations with a touch screen that you can use to access schedules.  All you have to do is touch the British flag on the screen to change the language to English.  Then I think you select Ticket Reservations, after that you just follow the directions on the screen until it gives you a list of trains that will stop at your desired destination.  Once you have this list you can print out the selected schedule for your journey.  However; be careful when selecting your trip to check and see if there are any stops that you have to switch trains.  If you do not pay attention to this you could miss your connecting train and have a lot more trouble getting to your destination.

                Last but not least the most basic way of finding trains, but in my opinion the most confusing, is to look at the paper schedule that is posted on the wall at the train station.  Be sure to know the difference between arrivals and departures, because there are two different schedules posted.  I hope that all of this information will be helpful when you are planning your trips.

Pues…hace mucho tiempo desde el último “update.”  And it has been a crazy month and a half.  I haven’t updated because I always want to give thorough updates.  So here we go…lots to tell you.

Trips:

As I alluded to in my last updated, I did go to León, Spain, to visit a good friend of mine and to see the city.  I really enjoyed it as it was a very relaxing weekend.  I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful cathedral and just walking around the city.  It was the perfect getaway!

I also took a day trip to Avila, Spain, which was a lot of fun.  I went with three of my friends from the University.  It also was relaxing.  We had a good Spanish-style lunch, saw the Avila wall, and the cathedral.  It is the smallest city in Spain I’ve visited, which gave me a different feel for Spain’s culture.

Finally, just three weekends ago, I traveled to Lyon, France.  We then took a train and bus to Taizé, France, where I had the amazing opportunity to go on a Taizé retreat.  At that point, I was so overwhelmed- especially with school.  A relaxing weekend (are you catching the theme here haha) was exactly what I needed and exactly what I got.  I was able to clear my head and, thus, think more effectively.  As well, I was able to enjoy the beautiful nature trails on the Taizé grounds

.

My traveling is not finished either.  This coming weekend, I will be going to the south of Spain.  I’ll be sure to update you after.

Madrid life:

Life in Madrid is great.

I’ve been very busy with school.  I’m finally caught up with all of my school work…which I got majorly behind on because of having to return to the States.  So it is a nice feeling to be more caught up.  But unfortunately because I’ve been working so hard to get caught up, I haven’t worked much on many of my big end-of-the-semester research papers, projects, etc.  So I have to work extra hard to keep from falling behind again and missing deadlines!

I’ve been having a lot of fun too though.  Madrid is such a great city…I still have so much to do in these next three weeks before leaving.  But here’s what I’ve been up to since the last update- going: to tapas bars, for chocolate con churros, to bars/clubs, to malls, to El Rastro (the huge flea market in Madrid), ice skating, to plays (my school performed Rumors, which was hilarious!), to Retiro Park, etc.

Thanksgiving Abroad:

Additionally, I think I should mention a bit about my unique Thanksgiving experience.  I was fortunate enough to have my brother, Eric, and his friends, Jacob and Daniel, over here from last Sunday until yesterday.  I had fun showing them around Madrid and spending time with them.  Thanksgiving Day here was quite interesting.  First of all, this was my first Thanksgiving of not being off school…I had classes.  But my University made up for it by having a Thanksgiving lunch buffet with turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, cranberry sauce, etc.  It was super delicious and special to share it with family and friends.  But I think the funny thing is what we did for Thanksgiving dinner- we went to an all-you-can-eat Japonese restaurant.  hahaha  It was good, but I think I would have thought you were crazy if you had told me I’d be eating Japonese cuisine on Thanksgiving- it is hard to imagine any Thanksgiving meal without the American standards.  Eric, Jacob, and Daniel had a really great time in Madrid and really enjoyed the city.  I think they’ll be interested in studying abroad in college themselves.

Now:

As I mentioned before, next weekend marks my trip to the south of Spain.  Today, I’ll be working “muy duro” (very hard) on homework- an international finance project and my SPAN 416 international financial terminology dictionary.  This week I’ll be continuing with that Spanish project as well as tackling my two honors research papers…yikes!  The following week, I’ll continue working on the essays and study hard for exams.  My first exam is International Finance, which is on the 12th.  Then I have a little gap, where I’ll go visit some of the art museums-like El Prado-and see things in Madrid that are still on my To Do List.  Then on the 18th, I will have my International Business and Español para negocios exams.  And the morning thereafter, I’ll be on the airplane home to the States.  I can’t even believe how quickly things have gone…and how much quicker they’ll go!

I’m going to miss Spain so much, but I am excited to see my family and friends back home.  I know that it is important for me to be at home with my family at this time in life.  So as to be home more often if need be, I have scheduled all of my classes next semester for Monday and Wednesday.  Here’s my schedule:

MW 9:30-10:45 FIN 433-01 Preece
MW 11:00-12:15 CIS 300-03 Thatcher
MW 16:00-17:15 SPAN 524-01 Wagner
M 17:30-20:15 COMM 111-75 Barr
W 17:30-20:15 MGMT 301-77 Myers

Well take care, and I’ll look forward to updating you soon.  Also, I promise that I’ll be updating some more upon my return to the US.  I feel I can better highlight the culture shock and reverse culture shock of studying abroad.

¡Nos vemos!

Alejandro

If you come to Germany, you need to definately visit Berlin.  Berlin is amazing.  There is so much history in this city.  The Berlin Wall, German Parliament, Checkpoint Charlie, Holocaust Memorial, DDR Museum were just some of the exciting things we were able to see. 

Throughout the whole city there is a brick line inidicating where the Wall used to be and you can walk the whole wall if you wanted.  Walking the Wall will lead to Checkpoint Charlie which is a point along the Wall where certain people were able to cross form East Germany into West Germany. 

The Holocaust Memorial is a very moving and if you have time there is a sort of musuem under the memorial that cronicals the life of some Jewish families during the Holocaust.  And not too far away from the Holocaust Memorial is the place where Hitler burned all the literature that could threaten his rule.  You can actually look down into the old library and see all the empty shelves. 

The last place we visited was the DDR Musuem.  When you walk in you are in the old East Germany.  The musuem has replicas of an apartment, the clothes and fashions, the car the everybody drove, and the toys and cartoons of East Germany.  It was very interesting to see the how different two parts of the same city were.

So once again, if you come to Germany definately make of stopping in Berlin.  Just walking through the city, you can feel the amazing history that took place there.

Traveling will be one of the most fun things you will do while studying here in
Europe.  You will have so much more time on your hands then you do while studying in the
U.S.  My roommate Suzi and I decided that we were going to do one big trip and visit some of the main cities on our list of places we wanted to see.  So we planned a trip that would take us to London, Dublin, Madrid, and
Paris.  We searched all of the travel sites and found that RyanAir has the cheapest flights available.  We did learn a very important thing while we were leaving the country.  As an American student you really should not get a student visa.  One of the girls traveling with us is from Canada and she got a student visa before she came to
Germany and as we were leaving the country she found out that they had made a mistake with her visa and only allowed her entrance into the country once.  So as we were leaving the Immigration officer told her that she wasn’t going to be allowed back into the country unless she went to the German consulate in London or
Dublin and got a new visa.  When she went to the consulate she was told that she never needed a student visa and that her passport was more than enough for her to enter the country and remain there for at least three months.  So we all learned that Student Visas are completely unnecessary for American and Canadian students.

            The first stop in our trip was
London.  I have to say that it is one of my favorite cities.  We visited Big Ben,

Buckingham
Palace, and all of the other major landmarks.  If you really want to get a good view of
London you should visit the Eye of London.  It is the largest ferris wheel in the world.  You could see everything from the top.  But my favorite thing we did was see Wicked.  It was an amazing production.

            From London we traveled to
Dublin.  In
Dublin we made sure to take a tour of the Guinness Storehouse.  At the end of the tour you go up to the gravity bar where you can get a 360 degree view of
Dublin along with a free pint of Guinness.  But the coolest thing we did was go on a day tour of

Wicklow
National Park.  We got to see the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen.  It is also the park where they filmed P.S. I Love You and Braveheart.

            In
Madrid we went on a free tour of the city through the website NewEurope.com.  I would actually recommend that you take a look at this website if you are planning to travel anywhere in
Europe.  They offer free guided tours throughout most major European cities.  We also went on a pub crawl one of the nights and got to see
Madrid’s famous nightlife.

            From Madrid we went to
Paris.  This was my favorite city of the entire trip.  The buildings and landscaping of
Paris are the most Beautiful I have ever seen.  I honestly do not think there is a city that compares with it.  I was also very surprised because we were told numerous times that the French people would not be very friendly toward us since we were Americans but everyone we met was so sweet.  The very first day that we arrived in
Paris, we got lost trying to find our hotel.  We were able to find the general area where our hotel was located but not the building itself.  Two French guys saw that we looked lost and offered to help us find our hotel.  But
Paris is a city rich with history and there are dozens of amazing sights to be seen.  Of course we saw the main ones, the

Eiffel
Tower, and the Louvre, and several others.  My favorite thing was the boat tour we took at night.  I absolutely loved that city.  If you get the chance you should definitely visit it.

This past week was the first week of actual school at EBS.  The classes are generally the same as U of L.  You go to lectures and take lots of notes, but the difference is that your grade is based solely on one final exam rather than homework and lots of little tests.  Another difference is the class scheduling.  All the classes are on different days and different times, so make sure you always check your schedule.  Other than crazy schedules, the classes are very well organized and all of them have ended exactly on time.  The professors are also very interesting.  The provide point of views that differ from the views in North America.  The one problem with some of the teachers is that it is difficult sometimes to cope with the different accents.  But overall, I rate EBS as a great school with interesting classes!!