Leaving home to go off to college is hard enough for students from the U.S. For international students studying abroad, coming to live in a different country can be even more overwhelming.

Luckily, UT creates a home away from home for those looking to further their education all while experiencing new cultures.

Ambrosia Sip — a first-year student studying for her masters in French and Francophone studies — transferred to UT after receiving a bachelor’s degree in fine arts at the University of Lille located in North France.

Sip had never lived outside of her home country — France — nor had she come to the U.S. before becoming a student at UT.

“I didn’t have a culture shock at the beginning, but I am shocked about the people,” Sip said. “Everyone is really friendly and welcoming. … I love the mentality here.”

Marie Fettah — a second-year student studying for her masters in French and Francophone studies — transferred to UT after receiving a masters in international master of audiovisual and cinema studies at the University of Lille. Fettah received her bachelor’s degree in performing arts in audiovisual and cinema at Aix-Marseille University in the South of France, where she is from.

“My home will always be Marseille where my family is, but I did feel welcome here,” Fettah said.

New adventures always come with new challenges. For Fettah and Sip, one of their challenges has been adjusting to the U.S. college workload.

“There are a lot of assignments and exams,” Sip said. “It is hard to have free time.”

Fettah also expressed that the workload is not the same as what they are used to back home, and she felt overwhelmed during the beginning of her time at UT.

“In France, you have a presentation in the middle, and then you have a paper in the end,” Fettah said.

Despite the vast amount of work to submit for classes, Sip and Fettah enjoy the progressiveness of the courses offered to UT students.

“You have a lot of diversity in courses,” Fettah said. “There are also more courses. In France it is more restricted. … I studied the perspective of gender and sexuality, and in France we are really, really light about that.”

The advancement of studies in the U.S. was a big appeal to Fettah, and she enjoys being able to openly express her opinions with her peers and professors.

Other challenges Sip and Fettah have faced in the U.S. have been public transportation and finding ways to eat healthy.

“I was warned before that there was little public transportation, but I didn’t understand the extent of it,” Fettah said. “The buses are problematic, so it is really complicated.”

Neither Sip or Fettah own cars, leaving them extremely reliant on public transportation. UT provides transportation to and from campus, but getting to the grocery store or other non-affiliated university locations is difficult.

The dining options available on campus are not ideal for someone trying to keep a healthy lifestyle.

“I eat very, very bad here,” Sip said. “Here it is really salty or really sweet or really fattening.”

With limited free time and transportation, Sip finds it hard to cook healthy meals and keep active. The Big Orange Pantry — a resource provided by UT — has been very useful to Sip, providing free vegetables and other items to students.

While Knoxville is far from home to Sip and Fettah, the memories they have made in this journey will be something they take with them back to France.