After having a great Christmas send-off to say goodbye to family and friends, I’m finally packed and ready to fly out for my semester abroad. Right now I have a lot of mixed feelings, thankfully however I won’t be travelling alone – this last semester I’ve made an amazing friend in an international student at Flinders who spent Christmas with us and who I was able to organise to fly over with. Although she isn’t from the university I’ll be studying at, it’s a huge comfort already having a contact, and friend, only a train-ride away.
As nervous as I am for the trip, I’m twice as excited for the flood of experiences, people and culture that I’ll be hit with over the next 7 months. I’m also looking forward to the exposure and practice I’ll have of the language and will hopefully come away with new skills and a higher proficiency in French.
All in all, I can’t wait to get to France and begin this next chapter of life!
Karl Pahl-Duffy, a Bachelor of Languages/Bachelor of Arts/Diploma in Language student, Semester 1 2016 exchange at University of Tours, France