Ireland
"Student Association Events were a great way to meet new people!"
As this was my first time living away from home I was anxious at first about arriving. Living with people from my own college in Dublin definitely made the transition a lot easier. The initial set up here was quite stressful at times with regards to things like opening a bank account and setting up the CAF. However, I found that the Aloha team in GEM did a lot in helping me get to know my way around. My French needed a lot of practice after a long Summer of speaking just English but I found that it all came back to me quickly.
I found that through the student associations there were many nights out to be. The night life in Grenoble was quite different to at home but when there was a night out organised it was always lively and fun.
Grenoble is an easy place to travel from and the trains are easy to organise with the student 12-25 discount rail card. We made several trips such as going to Chambery and to Lyon also for the famous festival of lights which was fantastic!
There is plenty to do and see if you make the effort to find out what is going on. I would advise anyone coming here to try make use of the student associations and discounts for students (like the rail card and ski passes) to help make trips affordable!
Slán