Sometimes, when the drudgery of adult life becomes a little too much, I like to fantasise about the time I spent living in Paris in my early 20s. I will never be as young or as free or as unbothered as I was then. The six months I spent there on exchange studying art history at the Sorbonne were some of the best of my life, but they were a far cry from a scene out of Emily in Paris .
The fact that it is an immense privilege to study in another country is not lost on me. I was lucky enough to be living at home in Australia beforehand, which enabled me to save as much money as possible while working part-time to finance the expensive endeavour. On exchange in Paris in 2019.
Credit: Lauren Ironmonger All in all, I estimate I saved around $10,000 – which covered airfares, living expenses and enough money to travel around Europe both before and during my studies. This amount enabled me to live comfortably, but modestly – how much you need to save will depend on where you’re going and what you want to do when you’re there. On top of this, I received a scholarship from my university of around $5000.
I would urge anyone going on exchange to apply for scholarships and financial aid, even if you don’t think you’re eligible. I received mine based on academic merit – I was hardly the top student in my classes, but qualified because my grade average reached a certain threshold. Finally, I continued working while I was there.
My boss at my job in Sydney, where I worked as the.
