At the end of my sophomore year of college I was presented with the opportunity to go and study aerospace engineering abroad in France. Having never been to Europe before I jumped on the opportunity and slowly convinced my parents over the course of months that it was a good idea. My expectations about the program were high after reading about previous students experiences in the GEA-France program. In the months before I left I met all of the other Michigan students that were also going and to my surprise I already knew half of them. Having signed up to the program alone I was much relieved to know that there were going to be people that I knew going as well. Right before I left I had an odd emotional cocktail of being excited, nervous, afraid and hopeful all at the same time. The host city for the GEA-France program is Toulouse, France. Toulouse is a beautiful city in southern France rich with history.
Unlike the United States everywhere you go you will see something that is historically significant. The streets are always filled with people and the city has a way of feeling like home.
Upon arriving in Toulouse I experienced a sudden rush of adrenaline. I had finally made it to Europe and I would be in Europe for six weeks. The accommodations at Supaero were nice since all of the summer program students we were all in one dormitory and we each had a room to ourselves. The other rooms in the residences were used by nation and international students including students from Italy, Spain, and Brazil. My first weekend in France was spent getting to know the local city and culture. I found the public transportation system to be easy to use even though I knew very little French. The dining in France was good; I especially like the creperie’s, which served diner and dessert crepes. 
A main difference in the dining experience in France is that there it is meant to take a few hours. On average it would take about one and a half hours to eat a twenty-dollar meal in France.
The language barrier in France wasn’t as difficult to overcome as I thought it would be. Most of the people that I regularly talked to around campus were very good at speaking English and enjoyed the occasion to practice our language. Communication sometimes got difficult when I traveled into town and tried to get something to eat. I oftentimes found myself staring at the menus without an idea of what 90% of the words on it meant. Most of the time I ended up getting what I wanted narrowly missing accidentally ordering the cow tongue or sheep intestines on the menu.
While in Toulouse I took classes on aerodynamics, structures, combustion, flight history, and flight safety. I enjoyed attending class and learning about the topics and cultural differences on how the topics were taught. I learned a great deal that will help me a lot in the years to come. 
The various campuses around Toulouse that accommodated us were very nice.
Over the course of the program we had a couple of 3-day weekends. The first 3-day weekend I decided to join a couple of the other students on a trip to Barcelona, Spain (only a 4-hour train ride away). Barcelona was a spectacular city, having a beach, a never-ending nightlife and endless amounts of people to meet. During the day in Barcelona we went around town looking at all the historical building and all the Spanish architecture.
A couple of weeks after we traveled to Barcelona the program arranged for us to go to Paris and the Paris Air Show. Paris is an enormous city with enough things to keep you busy for a lifetime, let alone the 3 days that we were there. The air show was spectacular and seeing many of the world’s fastest jets up close was amazing. During the air show we were invited to have lunch at ENAC, a European aircraft company, and sit in the private showing booth for the air show. After this we visited the US display and were given a private tour of the US planes and helicopters.
While in Paris we visited the major landmarks (Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, Louvre). The Eiffel tower was the landmark that impressed me the most. The stature and positioning of this tower is beautiful and the shear amount of work required to plan and build this structure is amazing.
When the six weeks were up I had experienced only a fraction of what Europe had to offer. I made close friends, saw beautiful historical buildings, and had the best summer of my life, all while earning six credits and learning things that I will use for years.
