forget-me-not

tomorrow i have an appointment with my academic advisor where she signs of on the papers that say officially that i will be abroad and that the university is letting me go and i cannot forget about this meeting or i will never ever ever be able to go see my advisor again.

ps i sent in my medical, room and course selections forms. an apartment with a roommate who is "neat, outgoing, considerate and mature" sounds amazing. so does taking only 4 class, and only needing a C for the credits to transfer and having the grades not factor into my GPA. although i freaked out for ten seconds today because what if i get there and all my classes are at eight am or something ridiculous like that? i might just have to turn around and come back home.

e-mails

it excites me greatly that when my french teacher e-mails me (i got a new one on friday, related to an exam i had taken) that i not only understand the whole thing, but can easily write back. however, i think about the fact that i'm going to be missing my best friends' 21st birthdays and my spring formal while i'm abroad and that makes me a little sad.

camus

Today I had my meeting with the UMD Study Abroad advisor. Nothing too exciting, she gave me a couple of different forms that I need to get signed by a couple different people and then bring back... but I am one step closer to going. (Which makes me wonder... did my mom send in the confirmation deposit yet to secure my spot?)


Anyway, tomorrow I am presenting in my French Literature class on Albert Camus, writer of The Stranger, most recognized for his development of existentialism. (Wow, I sound like a real college student. Like the type I used to want to be like in on the TV shows...) The presentation isn't directly related to study abroad, but it did get me in the mood. Although I hate my accent, I can usually express myself, which is good. And hopefully the accent thing will work itself out when I'm there.


I know that there are small spelling and grammar mistakes, along with missing accents, but I'll fix all that tomorrow morning when I get up early to practice it one more time...

Albert Camus est ne à Mondovi, un petit village en Algérie, le sept novembre mille neuf cent treize (1913). La prochain année le père de Camus été blessé à la bataille de la Marne et il est mort à l'hôpital militaire de Saint-Brieuc le 17 octobre 1914. Parce que son père été mobilise deux mois avant la naissance de Camus, Camus ne connais pas son père que une photo et une anecdote significative : son dégoût devant le spectacle d'une exécution capitale.
Camus est grandi et faisait ses études à Alger. La, il a découvert les joies du football et de la philosophie. En mille neuf cent trente deux (1932), Camus a obtenu son bac et a commence des études de philosophie. Il publie ses premiers articles dans une revue étudiante.
A ces temps-la, Camus a eu son premières atteintes de la tuberculose. Il était frappe pas l'injustice faite à l'homme. Il a commence a penser que la mort est le plus grand scandale de la création. Sa maladie lui apprend qu'il est seul, et mortel.
En mille neuf cent trente quatre (1934), Camus s’est marie avec Simone Hie. L’année prochaine, il a fonde le théâtre du travail pour mettre les œuvres dramatiques, classiques et contemporaines à la portée du public défavorisé. Pendant cette année, il a joint le parti communiste.
Camus s’est séparé avec Simon Hie en mille neuf cent trente six (1936) et l’année
prochain il a publie L’envers et L’endroit, deux ouvres qui montrent qu'« amour de vivre » et « désespoir de vivre » sont inséparables.
En mille neuf cent trente huit (1938), Camus devient journaliste à Alger-Republican, un journal socialiste, ou il écrit au sujet de procès politiques algériens. Deux années plus tard, il s’est marie avec sa deuxième femme, Francine Faure, et ils sont quitte l’Algérie pour la France.
En mille neuf cent quarante et un (1941), Camus a joint la Résistance et a publie des articles dans combats, un journal dont il a devenue le rédacteur principaux. Pendant cette année, Camus a écrit L’Etranger, son plus connaît roman.
En mille neuf cent quarante quatre (1944), Camus a fait la rencontre de Jean Paul Sartre et l’année suivante il est quitte le journal Combat.
Camus a publie L’Homme Revole en mille neuf cent cinquante et un (1951) et l’histoire irrite des surréalistes et des existentialistes. L'année suivante ce sera la rupture définitive entre Camus et Sartre. Sartre reprochait à Camus son anticommunisme et sa soumission aux valeurs bourgeoises.
En mille neuf cent cinquante six (1956), Camus a publie La Chute- un livre plein de
cynisme et de pessimisme.
En octobre, mille neuf cent cinquante sept (1957), a l’age de 44 ans, Camus a reçu
le prix Nobel de littérature "pour l'ensemble d'une œuvre qui met en lumière, avec un sérieux pénétrant les problèmes qui se posent de nos jours à la conscience des hommes".
Camus était un écrivain humaniste. La carrière de Camus était celle d'un psychologue et d'un moraliste. Camus est connu pour l’idée d’existentialisme, mais la contribution philosophique peut être le plus significative de Camus était son idée de l’absurde. Il a cru que nous désirons clarté et les raisons pour les choses qui ce passe dans un monde qu’on ne peut pas comprendre. A son avis, la vie n’a pas la signification. Il a cru qu’il y a trois types de personnes : celle qui ont d’accord avec lui et donc suicider, celle qui créent la signification artificiel (comme des religions), et celle qui ont d’accord avec lui mais comme même vivre. Camus a appelle la
troisième groupes, « les héros absurdes ».
3 ans après il a gagne le prix Nobel, le 4 janvier, mille neuf cent soixante, Camus a
voyage à Paris et pour une raison inconnue, le chauffer a perdu le contrôle de la voiture. Il s’est tue dans cet accident de voiture. C’est tellement ironique parce que plus tôt dans sa vie, Camus a remarque que la manière la plus absurde de mourir serait dans un accident de voiture.

killed "le chat"

How do you think Parisians feel about tongue rings?

And because I think I should start practicing...

Comment pensez-vous les Parisiens se sentent au sujet des piercings de la langue?

one good, one bad

This week is hell week. Today I had a group project and a Business Law exams. Tomorrow I have a Marketing exam and International Econ exam. Thursday is Yom Kippur and I can't do anything and Friday I have an essay due. Plus, going home last week for five days for Rosh Hashanah and missing three days of school doesn't help either. So no Julie Blogger McBlogsALot this week.

But I have a couple things to say before my MIA status begins.

First off, yesterday, I set up my appointment to meet with University of Maryland's French Study Abroad Advisor next Tuesday. I assume she's going to help me figure out how to transfer my financial aid, and get my study abroad-ship approved by the University. Exciting and a bit scary.

Second, I got the actual physical acceptance package from CEA today in the mail. Which makes it official, almost, except forth $500 I need to send in to confirm my spot. But I read through the booklet they provided with general useful information for students traveling to France. Also exciting and a bit scary.

Then, I've also gotten to study abroad related e-mails in the past few days. One good, one bad.

One of my friends who is studying abroad this semester writes:

so im not in the greatest place right now. im starting to really rethink this semester and i dont know if it is the best idea for me to stay. that being said i think it would also be academic suicide to leave in the middle and ive never quit anything in my life. i dont know what it is but something is just not meshing right. i like my roomates and friends they are really sweet, but they arent you guys. it is different. like i feel like they are alright friends but no major connections. i kind of get the feeling its all superficial... i also really miss havign close guy friends. its so funny how much you take for granted back home. im just kind of going through a rough patch with all this stuff.

My primary concern was obviously writing her back and telling her that there will be rough patches, that's just part of the process, that going abroad is scary and takes guts, and that her friends are there for her and miss her. I also told her that if she left, she'd regret it. But, her email made me really nervous.

On that note, I've been trying to think about next semester abstractly, "oh, I'll be in Paris", without really concentrating on the fact that I'll be abroad and in a foreign country by myself... I'll deal with that once I get off the plane. In some ways, I feel like I'm going to take next semester to just be by myself... I don't know how to explain it. I guess that's a too poetic way to look at all of it. Once I get there, I'm sure I'll want to make friends and go out every night and not be alone.

Okay, so the second e-mail I received tonight. It's from my French teacher this semester, who I asked about the current attitudes towards Jews in France:

Bonsoir Julie,

J'ai parle a mes amis en France au sujet de votre sejour en France l'an prochain. C'est une famille, d'une part, aux racines juives et, d'autre part, vraiment politisee, donc, je suis sure qu'on peut se fier a leur opinion, ils sont sans aucun doute au courant. Bon, on m'assure qu'il n'y a rien a craindre de ce cote-la. S'il y avait des faits d'antisemitisme la-bas, c'etait toujours l'opposition surtout entre les adolescents des communautes musulmanes et juives, et cela ne concernait jamais que le milieu vraiment orthodoxe. Les etidiants d'universites sont vraiment tres loin de cela. Tout comme aux Etats Unis, il n'y a pas d'anisemitisme d'Etat en France. Moi personnellement, comme je vous l'ai deja dit, j'ai sejourne a Arles et a Avignons deux fois, et pour longtemps (plusieurs semaines), et jamais je n'ai senti aucune inimitie raciste de la part de la population de ces villes (pourtant je suis tres vulnerable sur ce point).

Donc, voila tout ce que je peux vous dire a ce sujet. Du courage!

It's getting late so here are the cliff notes:

• I can't believe she wrote it in French, it's a 200-level class and I can tell a lot of people are lost in it (not me so much though)
• I was exited to understand it all
• I don't have time to translate it now, but it basically says, "no worries"
• Hopefully my francophone blog visitors will enjoy some French on the page!

Like I said, one good, one bad. And, now, I'm back to studying.

no more "kinda"

I've been checking the CEA website frequently over the last couple days to see if I've been accepted. Unfortunately, until today, the website was not working. I happened to check it today after class and it showed that my ACCEPTANCE PACKET was sent out to me today!

Which means that barring some emergency or unforseeable event...

I will be studying abroad in Paris during the Spring 2006 semester!

I feel like it is appropriate to now change my blog title from "Paris Awaits... Kinda." to "Paris Awaits." :).



Paris awaits. Finally.

a real one this time

So, what's funny about this reply is that I think this person was mentioned in the first reply I received... She talks about her boyfriend and how that helped her meet locals. The first person talked about how their roommate had a boyfriend and that helped them meet locals...

Julie,

Hello. For your first set of questions: I lived in an apartment provided by cea. The apartment was nice and came with a bed and bedding, pots pans, dishes, etc. The apartment I had was nice and it wasn't too far from centre ville and the universite. I lived with other Cea students who became my closets friends while I was in Grenoble. As for meeting locals, i meet locals in 3 ways: I put up a sign saying i was looking for a language exchange partner and like that i met several french students, 2) When i was out at bars I met people, and generally when they found out I was American they were thrilled to talk to me, 3) I met a french guy who became my boyfriend and through him I met his friends and was able to hang out with even more french people.

second set of questions: I studied at the universite de Grenoble so I dont know how classes are at the other school. The business program is brand new and this spring will be the first semester it is put into action. But I found the scheduling of classes to be different. But overall I didnt think there was a big difference between the american and french styles of teaching. Because I was studying only the language plus french electives in french it was hard at first. Since everything was in french it was mentally exhausting at first, but eventually my level in french got better and it became easier.

third set of questions: Theres a good nightlife in grenoble. There are lots of bars where students, american, french and foreigners alike go. In the very beginning I went out with other people from cea. Then once I started to meet other students in my classes, my nights out were multi-national. Which is great because then you have the chance to learn a bit about other cultures. There are things to do in Grenoble. They have a mall ( centre de commerce) that is only a short bus or tram ride away. Then theres walking around centre-ville which nice since the scenery is such a contrast to america. Plus the night life if fun. Grenoble is less than 2hrs away from Geneva Switzerland by train, so you can always hop on a train and go visit la Suise for a weekend. Its only a 3 hr train ride to Paris, and from Paris you can go anywhere in Europe you want.

I hope I have answered all your questions. If you have any more, don't hesitate to ask me.

bonne chance!!!

Jill M

p.s. just a little bit of extra information. I'm still in contact with several of the friends I met through CEA and in Grenoble. I'm working for a year in the Haute-Loire which isnt too far from Grenoble, and pretty much every weekend I return to Grenoble to visit my boyfriend, and my other french friends. And this winter I will be going to Africa to visit an old CEA roommate of mine who works in the peace corps.

second reply

Julie-

I would love to answer all you questions and talk with you about studying abroad, but first I think you should know that I studied in London so my experience was very different than yours would be in a foreign speaking country. So let me know if you are still interested and I will be happy to answer your questions.

Marilyn

OOPS. Well, CEA had her listed as Grenoble Alum.

e-mails

Cultural Experiences Abroad has this cool feature on their website where they list four alum from their programs. Since I was having reservations about going to either Paris or Grenoble, I decided to take advantage. I sent out an e-mail to eight people and so far I've gotten four responses.

My questions included:

• How was your housing situation? (Was it hard living in a family / apartment / residence? Was it hard to meet people?, Was it hard to meet locals?)
• How hard were your classes? I would be studying at American Business School / Grenoble Ecole de Management. Are the classes comparable to classes in the US?
• How was the nightlife? Did a lot of American students go out? Were there a lot of locals out? How hard was it to find things to do? What kind of things did people usually do at night?
• What did you think of Paris? Was it dirty? Were the people unfriendly? Was it expensive?

Hopefully they won't mind if I post their responses.

Here's the first:

Hi,

I absoluetly loved Grenoble, not being from a huge city in my opinion it was a good sized town without being huge. I lived in an apartment while I was there, I'm not sure if that is still an option that they offer, but the apartment itself was nice. I didn't have too much trouble meeting people who were outside the CEA program most of them I met through classes, or through other CEA members. I did meet some locals, however my situation was a bit unique because one of my roommates had studied through CEA the previous year and she had a boyfriend, so I was able to meet some of the locals through him. I didn't really meet any other locals other than these.

My classes weren't too bad, but I did when I went the option to study at Grenoble Ecole de Management wasn't available, so I am not sure how those classes would compare to the oned that I took. I did the language and culture program through the Centre Universitaire des Etudes Francaises. We had language classes 4 days a week in the mornings and then a break between 12 and 2 before the elective classes in the afternoons. You took 4 electives total and then a translation class, but these only met once a week, and Friday afternoons were always free, no class after 12, which was nice for taking weekend trips. Then at the end of the semester we had our exams, the only grade for the elective classes. But, the exams weren't too bad, as long as you went to class and reviewed your notes you were fine, no textbooks were necessary, they gave you little packets with the info that you would need. The language classes had things that were graded during the course of the semester just like our classes here, but there was no final exam for my class
(not sure about the others)

Nightlife was nice, there are some good bars in Centre Ville, not too far from Patrick's (the program director's) office. I don't recommend going alone though, just for safety's sake, especially if you will be out after the trams and/or busses stop running. I went out some with the other Americans, although some of them that stayed with families didn't go out too often or too late because they didn't want to disturb their host families. The nice thing about having the apartment was being able to offer a place to crash for those people so that they could go out with us. There were always a lot of locals in the bars, things would be rather tight inside, the places are not very big and so there were times when you couldn't hardly turn around inside (lots of fun though)!

As far as finding things to do, I never had too much trouble. Grenoble is about 3 hours from Paris by train, and not too much longer to get to the Mediterranean. Lyon is also a nice little day trip and only takes about an hour to get there. Geneva is not too long of a ride either, but you do have to change trains. Grenoble also has a couple of museums that are fun to go in and check out, and each month you can pick up a schedule of events that are going on around town. There was a wine tasting in town one weekend that we went and checked out, and I really enjoyed just walking around and taking in the scenery, camera(s) in hand. I also went with one of the other girls in the program and saw a performance of Pierre et le Loup (Peter and the Wolf), very fun as there were a ton of little French kids there too. There is also an ice skating rink near the outskirts of town and if you are there in the Fall they have a little Christmas market that comes just after our Thanksgiving.

CEA also "pays" for 4 excursions, 2 overnight and 2 day trips. We went to Orange, Avignon, the Pont du Gard, Chartreuse, Aigues Mortes, and Lyon for the festival of lights just before Christmas. As far as doing things at night it depends, they have a couple of movie theaters, some of which play American movies with French subtitles and some of which are dubbed, I recommend you see at least one movie in the theater while you are there. It's even better if you see one that you have already seen in English. Otherwise you would just see people hanging out at the bars or the cafes. There are also a couple of night clubs too, but I didn't go to any of them, too expensive.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any more questions, or if you want I can give you a link to my webshots account where I have pictures from the semester posted. It might give you an idea of the atmosphere of the town.

Nicole

Octobre 2000

5 years ago, as a sophomore in high school, I participated in a French exchange. Sixteen French students came to Lexington for two weeks in October and then in April the Americans went to France, traveling for a week and staying with families in Antony (it even says that Lexington, Massachusetts and Antony, France are partner cities) for the second week.

I, being a loser and being bored at home, found my old scrapbook, which has the names of the French students.

Marine Abello
Angelique Cheizel
Sophie Bray
Cyril Bonnet
Laure Masson
Camille Becker-Kerurien
Sophie Chen
Florence Coquinot
Arouny Sonphone
Emilie Nief
Patricia LeVan Tinh
Nicholas Bouvet
Cecole Vaudey
Mael Sonrier (My exchange student. He lived with us and then I lived with him.)
Julie Lecarpentier
Marion Douzou

I would love to get in touch with some of those people!

I tried googling them, but couldn't really find anything. Mael may or may not be enrolled at the Lille Graduate School of Management.

But, perhaps they'll try googling themselves someday soon. And then they'll find this blog (and will know I'm looking for them). :)

Can anyone tell me any good things about Paris?

That would just make this all easier.



ps i got sick of all this back-and-forth. so i just applied. yay. finally.

options

My mom asked me today when I was going to actually send in my application for Paris. I told her that I wasn't 100% that's where I want to go. I'm totally a city girl at heart, but I keep hearing bad things!

It's dirty. There's dog poop everywhere. It's expensive. The people are unfriendly... You get the idea.

I even got an IM this morning from someone I know who is in France for the year:

(6:46:39 AM): and by the way, if you have the opportunity to go to somewhere OTHER than paris, I'd do it...I've been there twice now and i'm really not such a fan so far
(6:47:59 AM): it's really not too different from DC...just with more languages and more scary, crazy drunk homeless people on the subway

AWESOME.

My mom brought up a good point, "where else are going to go?". I have no idea.

So I went on studyabroad.com and searched for academic programs in Northern France (If I'm not in Paris, I think I still at least want to be close by)...

• CIEE has programs in Rennes and Paris. But the only housing option is housestays. That's out.
• SUNY Rockport has a program in Tours. Housestays. And it's just one big French immersion course. Two strikes.
• Syracuse has a program in Strasbourg. No. (Personal reasons.)
• IES Dijon is a business program. Homestays. Out.
• Rutgers has a program in tours. Apartments. That's good. Although the deadline's passed.
• BCA has a business program in Nancy (Strasbourg). I'll have to check back into it.
• Miami's French programs are all taught in French. See previous post.

Well after that, it started to be all repeats and I got bored. So I'll research the BCA program further. But I don't know if I wanted to go through all the trouble of making sure it has everything I need and if the courses transfer. Ugh.

Can anyone tell me any good things about Paris?

That would just make this all easier.

grenoble. not.

For about three weeks in September, I convinced myself that I should go to Grenoble with API's International Business & Business Studies Program. I would take classes at Grenoble Ecole de Management.

Courses are taught in English, which is important. As comfortable as I am in French, I don't think I could handle Intermediate Microeconomics or International Business Law being taught in French.

There are two different housing options: homestays and residence halls. I would do residence halls and I was okay with it... kinda.

Grenoble (Occitan: Grasanòbol) is a city and commune in south-east France, situated at the foot of the Alps, at the confluence of the Drac into the Isère River. Located in the Rhône-Alpes région, Grenoble is the préfecture (capital) of the Isère département. Population of the city (commune) of Grenoble at the 1999 census was 153,317 inhabitants (157,900 inhabitants as of February 2004 estimates). Population of the whole metropolitan area (in French: aire urbaine) at the 1999 census was 514,559 inhabitants. (wikipedia.com)

I much as I'm embarrased to admit it... There were two things that really worried me:

• Difficulty of the classes. I don't want to go abroad and spend all of my time studying
• Availability of activites. I hate the cold - Skiing, Snowboarding are fun once in a while but spending four months in the Alps is something that really appeals to fans of such things.
• Quality of night life. see below.

The Grenoble Ecole de Management says:

There are many busy bars centered around Place Notre Dame, there is the London Pub which has 2 floors and is packed with all nationalities every night, (open until 1am), there is Café Notre Dame which is also a popular student haunt (open until 1am), and the Couche Tard (open until 2 am) rue Brocherie. The Couche Tard has happy hours every night from 8 to 10 pm and is extremely lively, it is popular with locals and students alike and will normally always have English speaking bar persons, and people dancing on tables is a common practice there.

Of course there are many other bars but these three are the most popular with foreign students. Nightclubs are ok but don't get too excited, drinks are expensive (around 8/10 € for a drink) and the music is not fantastic according to international students but it's somewhere to go after the bars shut.

The most popular for nightclub for students is the Vieux Manoir in Rue St Laurent, there is free entrance on Thursdays for everyone but you must pay on Friday and Saturdays to enter the nightclub, there is a bar as well inside which is free to enter on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and it stays open until 5 am.

Grenoble is a fantastic place to study and to meet people of all nationalities (British, Spanish, Scandinavian, Dutch, American, Mexican, Brazilian…).

Gotta say, that's not too convincing.

According to world66.com, there are sixteen bars. Good news, I guess. However, what I kept hearing from study abroad advisors, API advisors, my french advisors, people I talked to... If I wanted a nightlife, I would have to seek it out. But I'd be getting a more authentic French experience.

I don't know. I guess my reasons for against Grenoble are dismissable, but I wasn't excited about my decision. And that's what matters most.

europe

I spent the whole summer mulling over whether or not to still go abroad and whether or not Paris is where I wanted to go... but by the end of the summer I was still not any closer to making a decision.

When I got back to school I realized I had to actually start taking this whole thing seriously.

Things that I knew:

• I wanted to go to Europe
• I didn't want to do a homestay

So I did what any logical person would do. I found a map of Europe (gotta love Google) and made a list of places I was interested in going to and places that didn't appeal to me at all.


Places I could go:
Belgium
Czech Republic (Prague)
France
Italy
Spain

No desire at all:
Austria
Bulgaria
Croatia
England
Estonia
Greece
Germany
Holland
Hungary
Ireland
Latvia
Lithuania
Northern Ireland
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Scotland
Slovenia
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey

And here's the conclusion I came to...

Belgium is too small. Don't want to go there. Prague (Czech Republic) is sandwiched between Poland and Germany. Don't want to go there. That leaves France, Italy and Spain. Well, if I go to either Italy or Spain I might as well go to France since I've been taking French for the last ten years. It would be stupid to be in one country over.

And so it was decided. I would go to France. But where in France?

evaluation and approval

My major academic advisor, Lisa, and I met last week to figure out what classes I needed to take abroad in order to still graduate on time. I have 13 classes left. I take 5 per semester, and I would have two more semesters left at Maryland when I got back.

13 - 2(5) = 3

I need to take three classes abroad that count towards something.

For a while I had been thinking about going to Grenoble (it's not Paris and we have a partner Business school there). But I would be taking one french class and five business class, and they would probably be challenging classes. First of all, I think it's stupid to go abroad and take all business classes AND I don't want to spend my time abroad just studying...

Here's what my advisor figure out... I would find a program where I would get credit for

• 2 french classes (to finish my french minor)
• 1 upper level econ elective (since unless I go to Grenoble, nothing I take abroad can count towards my major)

I was very excited since I knew I could do that with one of the Paris programs... until I met with my french advisor, Madame C.

One of the two french classes offered is taught in English so I can't count towards my minor. I needed to find another class that would give me credits I needed!

They say everything happens for a reason, and that everything works out in the end. Well, I had been putting off my Non-Lab Science Course that I need for CORE (General Education classes that everyone is reguired to complete at the University of Maryland). The Paris program offers an Environmental Science course.

What makes everything so complicated is that after I've chosen where I want to go, and decided which program to go on, I still have to make sure that the courses I take are approved by each department.

The Econ department needs to evaluate and approve the Econ course. The French department needs to evaluate and approve the French course. The Geology department has to evaluate and approve the Science course. And the Business School has to evaluate and approve any business electives I want to take abroad. You get the idea...

best known for

april in paris

I never knew the charm of spring
I never met it face to face
I never knew my heart could sing
I never missed a warm embrace

Till April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom
Holiday tables under the trees
April in Paris, this is a feeling
That no one can ever reprise

I never knew the charm of spring
I never met it face to face
I never knew my heart could sing
I never missed a warm embrace

Till April in Paris
Whom can I run to
What have you done to my heart

Will I see April in Paris? I don't mean that in a sad way - more like a curious one.

questions

Soon I'll start from the beginning. But not tonight.

For the past four months I've been trying to figure out:

• if I still want to go to abroad
• whether Paris is the place I want to go
• whether I can get the credits I need there
• what kind of housing I want

I haven't fully answered any of those questions, but tomorrow I am applying to go to Paris. I think.