Pitt Global Experiences

Sydney Mahmood, Culture through Literature in Paris Summer 2024

As a study abroad student, balancing work and play felt like one of the biggest challenges I would have to overcome. Initially, I feared a demanding 4-week syllabus would leave little time for exploring the city. However, I am here to debunk this fear and tell you you can do it all! I left Paris knowing the city like the back of my hand, with no regrets, WHILE excelling in school work. My key was to do one new thing each day and dedicate an hour or two to homework. You could even combine the two as simply as reading a Molière play in a new ramen restaurant. Luckily, our homework felt more like an extension of our experience since our reading was generally about Paris while we are exploring it firsthand. And if you aren’t reading, you might be working on a fun project aimed to get you to write and explore as if you were part of the Lost Generation. 

A typical day started with rolling out of bed and getting ready for class 45 minutes before it began. We were fortunate to have our classes in the same building where we slept. As someone who grew up in a free hotel breakfast family, I  always tried to make it downstairs before 9 am to grab my morning cappuccino and some food. My usual spread included homemade yogurt and granola, a hard-boiled egg for protein, and of course, a chocolate croissant (or two). Do NOT sleep on French breakfast! Our classes, though back-to-back, were engaging thanks to our professors, and normally ran from 9:15 to 12:30. Afternoons were either spent on planned excursions or enjoying rare free days. In our free time before excursions, I would opt for a meal using a meal swipe, call friends and family, or take a much-needed nap.

The program guaranteed new experiences 2-3 times each week through mandatory itineraries from AIFS, including themed walking tours, a trip to Versailles, and visits to top museums like the Louvre. After excursions, I often made plans with friends to explore different arrondissements, eat out, and then do homework together before bed. If we didn’t have too much work, we would opt to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 10, which we always talked about how it felt like our “Cathy.” Despite the course load, at the end of the month, I found no days were wasted in the city of Paris!