jason-pitt-lyon-blog

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Now I am back in the US and have been for almost two months. Getting back into the swing of things here was not very difficult and I would be lying if I said it felt like I was gone for 6 months. Although I have missed out on a lot of things my friends have done, coming home just works. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been gone at all and my friends have warm heartedly welcomed me back and everything felt natural. Living in France was similar to my living situation right now on campus. The housing is similar but there is more freedom and less cost with on campus living in France, it was more of an apartment style on campus living. The experience of study abroad was amazing and I would do it again in a heartbeat. As for my future goals and thoughts on where my life may lead, yes they are different now. I never really traveled before this experience so I thought I wanted to but was really unsure about it. Now, I have a firm belief that I want to move around a lot in the early years of my career to see as much as I can, meet people from all over, and have amazing experiences. If I were to go back and do it again I would have prepared quite a bit more. Everything was very rushed and it worked out but better planning financially and otherwise would have helped make the journey a bit easier. Also I had a lot of trouble with the language barrier while I was in France. This was 100% my fault as I went into the program under prepared in my language skills, it did workout and I think that it gave me something to work towards while I was over there. However, the next time I spend half of a year or more in a country that speaks predominantly another language I want to have a better grasp of the language or available resources to practice and progress sufficiently. I miss everyone that were a part of that great 6 months and actually have kept in contact with a lot of closer friends. Some of us talk everyday. It was an amazing experience and I think that I came out the other side a better person with a better understanding of the world we live in and other people in it. 

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One of the last pictures of a large group of ERASMUS students that grew together and became a sort of family. Not everyone that was close to this group was in the picture because of some premature departures, but this group consists of people of different ages from all over the world who came together to enjoy 5 months of school, partying, adventuring, and just enjoying life together. I’ll miss every single one of them and am hoping to see them soon. To Jason, before coming here, if I could do it all over again, I don’t really think I would change much. I think each situation here, good or bad, have helped me grow as a person and this entire experience has really opened my eyes. I think if I were to go back, I would have prepared more in the language than anything else. When I arrived I was in far over my head in the language and the language barrier made classes more difficult, and interacting with locals, and INSA students far more difficult. I think that if I would have came here with a better grasp on the language, my language would have improved more and I would have made more/better French friends. With that being said, the group people that I hung around, who mainly spoke english together, are all amazing people and I think regardless I would have spent time with them and I am glad that I became close enough to some of them to firmly believe that they will be my lifelong friends and that I will see them rather frequently. As I am writing this I’m sitting in my completely cleaned out room, about to go eat my last dinner with the few friends that are still here, and then will be leaving INSA, and Lyon until, well, I don’t know when. I feel so privileged to have been able to have this opportunity and am happy for every part of it. I may be sad that this is all ending, but I am moreso happy just that it happened. Something that I think has helped me through this entire journey, not only here but in life, is beginning to meditate and becoming okay and accepting of myself. I feel that doing this has allowed me to have a positive outlook, enjoy these adventures to the fullest, and keep my head up when things are looking down. If you are okay with and accepting of yourself, you are never truly alone, and home is where the heart is. I love reflecting on what has happened here and all the great memories that I have made, but I make sure not to get caught up on them, as they are just that, memories. I keep dealing with issues and adventures as they come and push towards the future, where I don’t know what will happen. What I do know is this study abroad has made me want to travel more, meet more people, and see what I can with my short time on this earth. A la prochain France, Lyon et INSA vous allez me manque.

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I know it has been a while since my last post but a lot has happened. As is life, all of the highs must have lows and shortly after my last post I had a lot of things stolen from me. It was partially my fault and was an easily avoidable situation, but you live and you learn. I think that the best thing to do about that, and any other tough situation for that matter is to keep your head up, learn from the mistakes, and move on with your life. No amount of dwelling and thinking will change what happened. Although I contacted the police nothing has been solved and I have little hope to find any of my things or get my money back. With that being said, the two weeks following the robbery were some of the best of my life. At this school we had a 2 full week spring break. For this break, me and some other exchange students decided to go on a trip east. Specifically Croatia. We took a bus to Slovenia, and stayed some time in Ljubjana. I can honestly say that is one of my favorite places that I have seen. After this we rented a car in Zagreb Croatia and started a roadtrip to the southern part of Croatia to work our way back up to Zagreb. Getting a car was an amazing idea. Driving through the deep country of Croatia was really something else. I would recommend Croatia to anyone as a travel destination. During the trip we also stopped in Bosnia for a day and saw Mostar, and on our way back we stopped to visit my family in Pordenone, Italy. It was great to see family. This picture is from a national park in Croatia called Krka. It is amazing the things that I had seen in those two weeks and the amazing times that I had with my friends there. I know that I was told that most study abroad students have a ‘twilight’ period when they arrive and that it fades out and many people have a period of feeling lonely, or getting depression, but thus far, I don’t see that happening. Not anytime soon anyways. Of course I miss my family and friends from home but I also have new friends here that I hope to keep in contact with for the rest of my life. I have been here for 4 months, almost to the day, and I still like it as much as I did my first couple of weeks. 

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One thing that I have noticed in France is that they seem to be more open and welcoming to street art and graffiti than in the US. This is a wall on campus that is openly used for writing graffiti and some of the art that I see around all of the cities I have been to is absolutely amazing. This picture is also a bit of an excuse to talk about my first exam here. Because there aren’t quizzes, or homework's, or many exams the exams have a heavier weight. I think that obviously the language difference made taking this exam a bit harder and the fact that I had no idea what I was going to be taking. They don’t really give out reviews and things like that here, at least for this class, so my studying material consisted of problems we did in class, notes, and some old exams that I didn’t have answers to, or old answers that I didn’t have the corresponding exam of. The first exam here was terribly difficult. I believe it was 12 questions on Op-amps and electrical circuits in 50 minutes. The part specifically that I was not ready for was the theoretical part where you graphed input vs. output in different scenarios. I think I will be better equipped for my next exam... Well, I hope. I definitely should have put in some more work towards the exam than I did but now that I know that, I can do it for the next one and adjust accordingly. I’m not sure what I got on the exam and I’m not sure when I will find out but I don’t think it was good at all. That’s enough of a pitty party for my sub par test though, enjoy this picture of graffiti from my school instead. 

A la prochaine

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This is a picture from Nice at the Carnival parade at night after the Batille de Fleurs. Of course, this is a float of our newest president, Donald Trump. I left within a day or two of Trump’s inauguration, so I have only witnessed everything of his presidency from afar. I have gotten A LOT of questions from other students that are curious what I think of the new president. I try to joke and not talk to heavily on politics because I know it can be a rough area for a lot of people, especially in regards to Trump. Many of the kids that I have had real political conversations with are very open and we have had lengthy talks on politics in the US as well as their respective countries. Some telling me that they believe their president is worse of a president than Trump. I think no matter what country you are from or in, people you meet from other places may be interested in your politics and what you think about them, since they only see them from afar. I think that especially being from the US people are curious about politics, specifically President Trump. Although I agree with a lot of people I have talked to here on my stance on Trump, I feel as though it would be equally as okay for me to be on the opposite side. I feel safer and more comfortable here discussing politics, believe it or not, because I feel that they are more open. Instead of hearing the opposing side and instantly saying ‘wrong’ and getting into an argument, I have found that disagreements here are talked out and that they will ask WHY you think what you think. Simply because you think differently than others doesn’t mean you can’t get along and I feel like people respect beliefs they may not necessarily agree with here, which I feel does not happen as much back home. As a friend of mine from Spain was telling me, he knows people here from a region which Spain is very against and which they have been at war/conflicts with almost nonstop for years. When he talks to them, he simply doesn’t talk about politics or anything like that and it allows everyone to be happy, friendly, and have a good time. If you go searching for a problem, like anywhere you will find one, but respect what others think and say and everyone is very accepting. We can agree to disagree which is great. I also would like to point out that in this parade, France also poked fun at PM’s and Presidents from most countries around Europe including their own, and not only Trump.

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Since I am now a bit more settled in I will be making shorter posts, but more often to catch up on everything I’ve been up to. This is a photo of Nice, France. After about 2 weeks of classes here we had our first break, a week off from Friday to Monday a week later. During this time, me, a girl also from the US, and a Belgian friend that we met here went on a trip with a student organization to Nice and Monaco for 3 days. 2 nights in Nice and one afternoon in Monaco. Monaco did not have much to see other than the very expensive things most of us will never be able to buy, and Nice was one of the most beautiful cities I have seen. With crystal clear blue water and mountains in the background its hard not to love it here. Oh and they get ~300 days of sun a year, so there’s that too. On the trip we went to the big Nice Carnival and the Batille de Fleurs which was incredibly cool and a big historic event which I am glad to say I was a part of once. 

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Bonjour tout le monde,

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. It’s been a hectic first 2 months here, and like most college kids, I’m bad at managing time with social life, courses, and other things I need to/want to do. Anyways, this is my school. INSA Lyon, l’institut national des sciences appliquees. In France, there are Universities, and there are schools, or colleges. This is not a university but a college. As a French citizen it is my understanding that you have the right to attend a university, on the other hand a college is a more specific school that you must work into by qualifying for a specific field. Here, the first two years are crazy for students as only about 2/3 of them continue onto their third year where they can continue their education as engineers at INSA. Although it is a relatively young school, it is HIGHLY accredited apparently, and is known as a top engineering school in France. As for classes, they are both very different and alike from Pitt. I have lectures and then ‘TD’ which is the same as recitation. My lectures are with the entirety of the 3rd year of Genie Electrique students, which is about 80 kids. The TD’s are with about 15-20 kids. We also have lab twice a week for three hours. As an exchange student I have a lighter workload than students here. As an INSA student it is my understanding that you have class, or time allotted for studies from 8AM-6PM everyday with a lunch break from 12-2. Yeah they actually have class that much. They do have mandatory sports class, where they pick a sport and just play that once a week or so. They also take language courses which take up another couple hours a week, but for the most part they have very long days. Unlike Pitt we don’t have any quizzes or ‘homework’ instead we have 1 or 2 tests and the final. These along with lab reports make up our entire grade out of 20 points. Some classes don’t even have other tests. The entirety of my grade in my micro controllers class depends solely on 2 labs and a final. So you thought our finals were stressful? Try being a French student at INSA especially in the first 2 years..

[jason-pitt-lyon-blog]

Bonjour!

This is the first post of many following my time studying abroad. For background, my name is Jason and I am a student from the University of Pittsburgh that is currently studying abroad at INSA Lyon, near Lyon, France. This blog is to post pictures and tell about my time abroad. I will talk about culture, struggles, and success. This picture is from my first time walking around Lyon and is a picture of a historical piece of Vieux Lyon, ‘Old Lyon’ which is on top of the hill looking over the rest of the city. I am still getting settled in and have yet to start classes. A Bientot!