What are you doing?

Studying abroad has always been a part of my academic plan, but finding a program wasn't very easy. I knew I wanted to go for longer than a semester, and I wanted to go to France. When it came to programs that UW-Milwaukee offered that met those specifications, I had three options. One was for business students, which I am not, and the other two were in Paris. I did not want to go to Paris. Nothing against Paris, I just didn't want to live there for a year ($$$$$).

Thankfully, the UW System (as long as THAT still exists...) compiles into one database all the study abroad programs offered by UW schools. It was there that I found out about this program that I will be going on next year. It had the option for lasting an academic year, wasn't in Paris, was open to non-UW-Madison students who were Wisconsin residents, AND I get to take classes at a political science school. PERFECT.

So a little but about the school...here's the blurb from their website:
"Founded in 1956, Sciences Po Aix is one of the nine Political Studies Institutes in France, and the only one situated on the Mediterranean coast. It is a ‘Grande Ecole’ in the university and combines a culture of excellence and multidisciplinary ambition, resolutely pointing towards firms (60% of our graduates), high-ranking civil service (entrance exams) and research. "

That's pretty much it. No pictures. If I run a Google Image search on the school 1/3 of what comes up is some old door. Don't know what that's about, and at the moment I don't really care.

More updates to come...

Where are you going?

Since I'd like to use this blog to keep my family updated on my adventures, first I should probably explain where I'm going. Aix-en-Provence is a town of about 114,000 people in the south of France, located just outside Marseille, a major city in the south. In a form that most normal people can understand, it's pronounced "Ecks on pro-vahnce". French uses something called "nasal vowels" that we don't use in English, and there's 2 of them in the name...so it's hard for me to type it out phonetically for an American to understand.
As you can see, that's southeast France, near Italy and the Mediterranean Sea. Aix is actually accessible via Google Street View if you're familiar...feel free to look it up and drop the little person in the old city center, it's really a cool looking place. I found a decent video that shows you around the city/area a little bit. There'e plenty more videos on the internet, feel free to look them up, but the one I linked to was the best quality one I could find.



I'll explain more every now and then...this busy girl doesn't have time to type everything up in one sitting.