This morning I texted Addie as she enjoyed her pain au chocolate while studying in a cafe just blocks from the Mediterranean Sea in the beautiful ancient town of Antibes, France. She’s currently spending this semester studying abroad in the French Riviera. This has been a dream of hers since middle school, and we are thrilled she gets this opportunity. But it didn’t come without lots of thought and preparation! And stress over what to pack! We’ve had lots of questions about her journey, so I thought I’d try and answer some of them here. Also note that most of my pictures are screenshots of snapchats or BeReals or Instagram stories. Hey, I get what I can get. 😉

How can she afford that? You may think Chad and I are wealthy, what with him being a youth pastor and me a substitute teacher, but shockingly, we’re not loaded. So when Addie first talked about studying abroad, I was a little concerned about how much this might set her back since we weren’t going to be able to pour money into it. Thankfully, it’s been surprisingly affordable! Every college does study abroad differently, so I can only speak to our experience with this, but thankfully Cedarville (where Addie attends) lets their scholarships work for their study abroad programs. So her semester abroad is the same cost as if she were to attend Cedarville this semester. In fact, when we went to pay her bill, it was actually $2000 cheaper because she wasn’t paying for room and board at college. Her apartment is included in the cost of her study abroad program, but since food isn’t included, she saved some money there. It’s important to check with your college’s study abroad program to make sure your scholarships will apply as some aren’t able to be used towards study abroad programs.

But what about the cost of her flights? Another perk with the program Addie’s going through (CEA CAPA) is that they gave her a $1250 travel voucher for her travel there and back. She did end up spending $100 extra for her flights since she and her friend flew into London first to celebrate New Year’s there, which cost more since she didn’t have a roundtrip flight from the same location. But if she would have, it would’ve been completely covered!

How do you start the process of studying abroad? If your student is interested in studying abroad, they should first check out their school’s study abroad offices. There they will direct them to their options. At Addie’s school, they had a variety of different programs she could choose from, and through different organizations. One of Addie’s good friends, Abbi, goes to a different college in a different state, but they’d always dreamed of studying abroad together. Thankfully, both of their colleges had options through CEA CAPA which meant they were able to fulfill their dream and do the same study abroad program together! It’s possible your student could do the same with a friend from a different college also.

After your student chooses which program they want to do, they’ll work with someone in the study abroad office who will guide them through the next steps. They’ll have to apply for the program they choose and then most likely will have to apply to the college they’ll be attending in the other country. Then there’s more waiting to get accepted before they can move on to apply for their visa. I’ll talk more about the visa in the next section, but once their visa is approved, they can book their flights and are pretty much set to go!

What are some things you weren’t prepared for? The first surprise in this journey was when we learned that Addie had to make an in-person appointment at a French Consulate for her visa, and the closest one to her was in Chicago (which is a five-hour drive from her college). We didn’t find this out until about 1-2 months before she had to have her appointment, so that caused a lot of anxiety. To add stress to that, the consulate is not open on the weekends, which meant she was going to have to skip a day or two of her college classes to make it work. It would’ve been nice if we could’ve done this before she left for college in the fall, but we didn’t know about it, and I think the earliest you can apply for a long-stay visa is up to three months before your arrival. Thankfully, her good friend from Cedarville, Chloe, was also doing the study abroad trip with her and had a car, so they made their appointments for a Friday and made a fun girls trip of it. Below are a few pics of their time in Chicago.

Another thing we weren’t prepared for was the extensive visa application. Thankfully, Addie handled most of this on her own, but there was a lot of information she needed from us. Like the last three months of our bank statements and paycheck stubs – I guess to prove that she wouldn’t run out of money while she’s there. Not that we’re even paying for her trip, but they must assume that we’re decent enough parents to not let our daughter live on the streets if she runs out of money. Although that could be a good growing experience for her… she’d have great stories of panhandling on the streets of Antibes to share with her children.

As in most cases with nearly anything these days, there always seemed to be random fees creeping up on us. A $250 program application fee here, another $200 acceptance fee there, fees to pay for the visa, etc, etc. So be prepared to spend at least $500 or more on all of the various fees that pop up.

Where does she live? In a fairytale. Really. She and her two friends are living in an apartment (provided by her program) in the walls of a 16th century chateau called Chateau Grimaldi. It’s pretty incredible. Below is the entrance to one end of her little street.

They’re also just a block away from the Mediterranean Sea. Below is a glimpse down the other side of their street and then the view at the end.

She is quite literally living in a painting – a Monet painting to be exact.

What and where is she studying? The college Addie and her friends are studying at is an international English-speaking school called SKEMA. It’s located farther inland from where they live and is about a 40 minute bus ride one way. Thankfully, they were able to schedule all of their classes on Tuesday and Wednesday so they only have to make the trip twice a week. SKEMA is mostly a business school, and none of them are studying business, so they’re mainly getting some of their gen eds and electives out of the way. I’d say this “study abroad” trip is more for the “abroad” than the “study.” 😉 They’re still learning a lot though and are getting a great cultural experience.

Was it hard to let her go? Of course. It’s always hard to see her go away, but at this point, with having had her attend college far away and work at a summer camp far away, we’ve gotten more used to saying good-bye. It’s for sure not easy, and we miss her like crazy, but it’s also such a blessing to watch her spread her wings and experience all that she’s gotten to do so far. Which is a lot. Thanks to the cheap cost of transportation and hostels in Europe, she’s already been to London, Prague, Vienna, Monaco, Venice, Florence, and Rome. And she’s got more trips planned!

It’s such an amazing growing experience for her. She’s had to do so many things on her own that she’s never had to do before. Like book flights, fill out loads of paperwork, handle all the obstacles that come with living in a foreign country, and maybe most importantly – create and stick to a budget!!

It also helped saying goodbye knowing that we’re actually going to see Addie more this semester than we would if she were at Cedarville. We’re taking Millie and Tate and flying to France in just a few weeks! This is something we never thought we’d be able to do with the family, but it’s actually happening! Chad and I were planning on taking a trip to Europe for our 20th anniversary and had saved up money in a separate account for that trip. Well, that was in 2020, so of course COVID canceled that trip. But we kept adding to that account in hopes that we’d be able to do it someday. So when we heard that Addie was planning to study in France, we thought this would be the perfect time to make the trip and bring the kids along. It also happens to be our 25th anniversary year, so it’ll be a celebration of that too!

I hope this helped answer some questions. If you have had a student study abroad and would like to add any tips or info you think people should know, please comment! And if you have a student considering studying abroad and have any more questions for me, please ask!