I’m back after a long hiatus. I’m currently in Compiègne, France, taking engineering classes in French. There is plenty to tell about the experience, and I’m pretty excited about keeping up with some blog posts about it.

Anyway, here are some collected thoughts and tips from my stay last semester at Georgia Tech Lorraine. The list should benefit at least a few Tech students thinking about GTL.

Random Wisdom/Curiosities about the GTL experience

Don’t take too many classes while you are here. If you need to take more than the minimum 12 hours, then you should seriously consider not coming.

On the other hand, if the classes fit well into your schedule, you gain a lot from the small classes during the Fall/Spring semesters. It’s hit or miss with the professors. I was lucky enough to have three enthusiastic and dedicated instructors for each of my classes.

Pack lightly. It is amazing how little you actually need to survive a semester.

The vast majority of undergraduate GTL students travel every weekend using a Eurail pass. The beauty of the Eurail pass is its flexibility—you can miss a train without worry because you can just hop on a later one. We really abused our passes on one trip: going from Vienna to Rome overnight on whim.

Couchettes (night trains) save time, not money. Staying in a hostel is always cheaper.

Hostel quality varies wildly. It’s fun, I promise.

Traveling with another two or three people makes life a lot easier.

Experiencing the nightlife of a city provides a totally different perspective than the touristic sights do during the day. Going out at night has its tradeoffs, however. You won’t be able to wake up as early the next day, and it tacks on extra expense in some cases. Do it right, though, and you’ll experience cities on a whole new level.

Finding the local supermarket and buying food for meals is usually a great idea. It saves lots of money and exposes you to more local flavor than the “authentic” restaurants (which cater almost exclusively to tourists) will.

On the subject of restaurants, do your homework. It is quite difficult to just bump into a good restaurant while walking around. Worse still, the restaurants that look good on the outside are very rarely the best. Three of the best places we ate at were tucked completely out of sight from the road.

Metz is not a bad destination at all. The cathedral has one of the most prolific stained glass collections in the world. The nightlife is definitely an experience—the French hardly dance and the gay bars are wild (in a good way).

Want to learn French? Talk to French people in French. It is easy to spend the entire semester not uttering more than “merci” to store cashiers because there are so many American students at GTL.

GTL has four classrooms. It is tiny.

A lot of French girls like to show off their English.

In the winter, everyone wears black. And scarves.

Fly into Luxembourg if you can. It’s by far the closest airport to Metz.

Fly RyanAir at least once while you’re in Europe. The tickets are dirt cheap because you’re only allowed to pack a few kilos, are squished into tiny seats, and have advertisements played to you for the entire trip. Worth it? Absolutely.

Everything is closed on Sundays. Don’t run out of food.

The post office has a change machine. Terribly useful if you have to pay 5.50 a load at LaFayette.

Cora. A lot to say about this place. Basically, it’s the French Wal-Mart. But different. Everything is organized seemingly random fashion, making it almost impossible to find things for the first few weeks. (Hint: peanut butter is in the Asian food aisle). Cheese has its own aisle. Wine does, too. Other sorts of alcohol fill up two aisles. Get there early in the day if you want fresh baquettes. Around dinnertime, Cora is mobbed.

Consider getting involved in the student government at GTL. It’s called BdE—Bureau des Etudiants. Like any student organization, it can be hit or miss as to whether the group is a good one. If things go well (like they did our year), you will get to know French students that you wouldn’t have otherwise met and you will get the chance to put together events that really help bring together the GTL community. One of the best events—a fundraiser organized with another university held at a local club. All the entrance fees went straight to the BdE budget and all the members of BdE got VIP treatment from the club.

La Bouche a L’Orielle – a cheese fondue restaurant in Metz. A life-changing experience.