France: Michael Kaufmann
Program: IES Paris Business & International Affairs, Spring
Michael’s Major: Business: Actuarial Science
What is a custom, food or tradition from your host country that you are taking forward?
In France when we would go out to eat we would see people lingering around the dinner table for 2-3 hours. Nobody had their phones out, they were all living in the moment. My friends and I made a rule that you could use your phone to take a picture of your food, and then after that the phone went away for dinner. If we left earlier than 2 hours we were probably going too fast. It’s nice to sit around with loved ones and sharing a moment together over a meal.
I 1000% recommend enrolling in IES Paris.
What did you learn about yourself or the world because of your experience?
I learned how to say yes to anything. Before studying abroad I had done minimal traveling and I wasn’t a very adventurous person. When my friends from study abroad asked me if I wanted to go to Krakow, Poland, I was a little hesitant because I didn’t know what I would be getting myself into. But I said yes and learned to let go of the fear of the unknown and say yes to those opportunities. That lesson changed my semester and allowed me to have a raw, vivid experience while studying abroad.
What is the moment you are most proud of?
The first night after arriving in Paris, I immediately bonded with the other students I would be living with. We decided to go to the Eiffel tower as the most cliché thing we could do in Paris to “get it out of the way”. Seeing the Eiffel tower sparkle at night and realizing that I’d finally “made it” and I was actually turning my dream into a reality. I was incredibly proud of myself and I was ecstatic for the semester ahead.