One important reason that I decided to study at the University of Savoy is due to the Institut Savoisien d’Études Françaises pour Étrangers (ISEFE). The University of Savoy is one of the only French Universities to include a program as such that attracts trained faculty specifically to teach and share to foreign students and professionals the French Language, the French Culture, the French Business methods, and a wide range of other topics.

After the second week I began to find my way around Munich with the little German I knew. I found some good restaurants as well as the shops that weren’t outrageously expensive from tourism.

Our study abroad experience took place in the city of Innsbruck, Austria, which is nestled in a valley in the Austrian Alps. Immediately after arriving, we realized we were entering a completely different environment.

Arriving in a foreign country can be an overwhelming experience in many ways: from the weight of my thirty-nine pound travel backpack packed for three and a half weeks on my back, from the exhaustion from sleeping only a couple of hours on the plane the night before, and from being in a new place for the first time.

For many college students, the week after graduation signals an opportunity to travel. For a lucky few, that might even include a trip abroad. For a group of Department of Nuclear Engineering students, it means both a chance to head to Europe and the opportunity of a lifetime.

The trip to Prague included short layovers, long layovers, many countries, lots of time, and some tight quarters (word of warning for fellow tall travelers-planes are not exactly the roomiest mode of transportation). All in all, the trip from the United States to Europe worked out and provided some bonding moments between the professors and students alike.