Another semester rolls in and somehow I still haven't escaped higher education.

This time though, I have made it out of Atlanta, GA! At least for the next 9 months.

I find myself in Metz, France for the start of my Master's degree at Georgia Tech. I'll be based in this little college town of 100,000 people until December, taking classes at GT's European campus.

For those who followed my journey in Singapore, this semester promises to be far different. I don't plan to visit a different country every weekend, solo travel to different continents, or even find a local basketball team to compete on.

With only a few exceptions, I actually want to stay in Metz, immerse myself in French culture, and learn more about the lifestyle in small-town Europe. The whole "travel all of Europe" experience will commence in December, so stay tuned!

There are a few advantages that being in a small town and attending uni (yes we're back to calling it that) on a global campus offer to big-city living, even when studying abroad.

Intimacy

I've found Metz and Georgia Tech-Europe to be quite intimate. It definitely helps that I speak French fluently–if you're thinking of coming here, practice your French!

Locals have consistently recognized that I'm a visitor because of my accent, but have been incredibly keen to offer directions, recommendations, or just a heartfelt "Bienvenue à Metz!"

I've always found that welcoming someone to your country is such an underrated gesture of hospitality.

Georgia Tech's Master's program in Metz is also quite small. There are less than 100 grad students studying here, so it's safe to say that in the first week, I've probably had meaningful conversations with at least half of them.

I expected it to be mostly students from the Atlanta campus, but in fact, there are only 10 grad students who did their undergrads at GT. The rest come from universities in France, Italy, Spain, and Morocco.

This suits me perfectly! It's an opportunity to practice my French and build meaningful relationships with people from halfway across the world–one of my favorite things from studying in Singapore.

Accessibility

I wasn't too thrilled to find out that even in a small town, Georgia Tech Europe's campus is not situated anywhere near the city center.

But that feeling came before realizing how accessible the entire city is. Europe really has public transportation and bike lanes figured out, and as someone who doesn't want to own a car for as long as possible, I'm 100% here for it.

I rented a bike for the semester for 15 euros, and it takes me 17 minutes biking, or 22 minutes by bus to get to the city center. By contrast, in Singapore, you couldn't feasibly bike to Marina Bay, and taking the bus or MRT would take about an hour.

Even in our own quiet corner of the city, everything I've needed–restaurants, a supermarket, a gym, and a pool–are within a 5-minute bike ride.

Damn, that made me sound like the simplest of men. But seriously, it's all I've needed for two weeks.

Nightlife

If you want nightclubs and ragers, Metz is not the place for you. There's an off-the-beaten-path city called Paris about 90 minutes away that can probably better fill those needs.

But Metz does have this adorable outdoor bar scene in the center of town that oozes small French town vibes and I love it.

I'm not the biggest fan of traditional American bars where people are all crowded up on each other, you pay $15 for a cocktail, and the music is too loud to talk to anyone.

On the other hand, Metz's cozy outdoor bars are fantastic. You can actually sit down and chat at a pace that's far more relaxed than the hustle and bustle I'm used to in America.

Given my whole aim of getting integrated into the city, it feels like a more fruitful experience.

When some friends and I went out this week, I had the most amazing conversations with people: first with Louis, a French guy who has lived all around the world and worked in Africa helping refugees trying to escape poor living situations in their home countries; then with Ricardo and Jaime, two Spanish guys new to France who are hoping to come work in the US after spending a semester in Atlanta.

Georgia Tech-Europe

Unlike my time in Singapore, I will pay attention to my courses this semester. It's going to be a heavy workload, which makes staying in Metz all the more convenient, but for the first time ever, none of my classes has more than 15 people in them.

GT's "campus" is really just a single building that sits on the opposite side of the lake from where I live. It doesn't even have room numbers–I take classes in the Red Room and the Yellow Room–and after one week I can probably list all the people who work in the building.

Yeah...this isn't Atlanta.

Another interesting thing about the campus is that, despite its small size, undergrads and grads don't really mix much together. I get the feeling that pretty much all the undergrads are here to do is travel.

Fine by me. I'd much rather talk to someone new from Morocco than from the school I just spent four years at.

I hope you enjoyed my initial thoughts on the city of Metz and the start of my Master's at Georgia Tech. Because I'll be traveling less often, my blog posts will venture beyond my weekly happenings and tread on other topics that I'm interested in.

Hopefully, that will keep everything from becoming too boring!

See you soon!