Personal Development
I experienced much personal gain throughout my exchange, from lifelong friendships, to incredible travel memories, to greatly improving my French language skills. The experience also changed me as a person - I'm now more confident, outgoing, and willing to give everything and anything a go.
Professional Development
The main skill that I developed during exchange that I believe will contribute to my professional development and future employability is a newfound flexibility and calmness when faced with unknown and unexpected situations. From encountering challenges while travelling to adapting to a new culture, language, and academic system, I've gained confidence in my ability to acclimate and readjust to new experiences and tasks.
Funding
For my exchange I devised a budget of $15,000. I ended up exceeding this budget by $1000 by the end of my exchange (total spending of $16,000), because I ended up travelling more than I had anticipated I would (and I went skiing - an expensive endeavour). Accommodation was 625 euro a month, the Lyon student transport card cost 25 euro a month for unlimited transport use and I budgeted 30 euro a week for groceries. My advice for budgeting would be to overestimate how much you're going to spend, and there's so many student discounts in France so check them out!
Accommodation
My best friend and I experienced quite a lot of trouble with finding accommodation. The first point of call when looking for accommodation in Lyon would be to try get student accommodation through a housing program called CROUS. If CROUS accommodation doesn't work out, which happened for my best friend and I, there are several other student accommodation websites and programs you can apply for. One that is reliable is called Chez Nestor, however you have to start paying the day you rent the room, so if you're not arriving in Lyon for a couple of months, you'll have to pay rent for when you're not there. This would be fine if there were still plenty of rooms available once we had arrived in Lyon, but a month before the university semester begins, pretty much every student accommodation option has been taken. This left my best friend and I with two weeks in our pre-booked Airbnb to find long-term accommodation, which we only just managed to do by the end of the two weeks. We ended up finding a long-term airbnb with the help of a local real estate management service, and I moved in with my best friend and two other Australians. The accommodation we ended up with ended up being perfect and in a great location. The advice I would give would be to apply for CROUS first, and if that doesn't work out try get accommodation with other people as it makes finding a suitable affordable accommodation a lot easier.
Highlight
Overall, exchange was the best six months of my life. It was amazing to be independent in an exciting foreign city and live with my friends everyday. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about myself outside my comfort zone that was Australia and settling into a life that I had created for myself. Travel was also the best part of living in Lyon as everything was so close. I went hiking in Chamonix, skiing in Chamrousse, backpacking through Italy, and solo travelling through Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands.
Academic Development
The French academic system was very different to the system we have in Australia. I found that I was required to do a lot more oral presentations, but essay and exam requirements were less demanding. These oral presentations were certainly my biggest challenge studying at a French university, however being surrounded by my peers and practicing my speech several times the night before meant I was able to overcome the challenge. Being pushed out of my comfort zone academically not only quickly improved my French, but also gave me confidence in tackling unknown tasks.
Top Tips/Advice
My top tips to other students considering exchange would be to firstly 100% go for it!! I cannot stress enough how incredible this experience was - you'll learn so much about yourself, the world, and meet so many amazing people. Be kind to yourself in the first couple of months, put yourself out there with new people, and travel as much as you can.
