Zut Alors!

Well hello! For those of you who don't know, in less than 48 hrs, I will be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, shaking in my boots! Yup, I'm leaving the comfort of home and not returning to the "Zoo" this Fall, but hopping on a plane to Europe instead, where I'll be for the next 6 months! I'm going to be studying abroad at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce (ESC) in Clermont-Ferrand, France. The ESC is actually a graduate school of management, but I'll be taking French language courses and classes in European history. I think I do actually have to take at least one management related class, plus participate in a really intense group project where I and 8 other French kids have to design a management plan for a business and present it before the entire school. I've already heard horror stories from years past!

Anyway, you might be asking yourself , "why the heck is she studying at a graduate school of management when she is majoring in biology?" I don't really have a good answer, other than Kalamazoo College offers a program there for those who have taken advanced-level French classes at K. I'm at the very least minoring in French; we'll see whether or not I decide to pursue a major... All of the courses that I'll be taking at the ESC will be taught in French, so hopefully I will be able to get myself through! I have this awful fear that the minute I get off of the plane, any ounce of French I've ever known will be gone from my brain. Hopefully that's not the case! Anyway, classes start in mid-September and go until the end of January. I don't have to be back in Kalamazoo until mid-March, so I plan on doing lots of traveling!

For anyone who might be interested, Clermont-Ferrand is situated pretty much in the very center of France in the Auvergne region (hence the title of this blog). Surrounded by a chain of volcanoes, it is situated on a plain in the Massif Central, a mountain range in south-central France. Clermont-Ferrand is also surrounded by a major industrial area and is famous for it's Michelin factories.

History lesson aside, I'm so excited yet so terrified! I'm living with a host family whom I know nothing about! I've done that whole bit before and it was wonderfully successful, but these guys don't speak my language! So scary. Oh well, they can't be that bad because they wouldn't take me in if they didn't want to, right? I just keep telling myself that. Anyway, I decided to create this blog because knowing me, I'll have plenty of adventures worth sharing. I also thought it would work out better than clogging up everybody's inboxes with email updates. More than anything, this journal is designed to document the life and times of a lowly foreign student, including the many cultural mishaps and awkward moments that shall surely ensue. Enjoy!

Just FYI, I will be keeping my K email account while I'm over there, so please please write to me! Also, I'm going to be posting pictures. The link is posted right over there on the sidebar ->

:) Wish me luck! I'll miss ALL of you!!

-Nessa