I honestly wanted to pass out by the time I was able to quit my muted panting and peer above the buildings covering the hilly landscape of Marseille to fully comprehend the distance that I had already walked with my two friends. Was I acting slightly dramatic? Probably yes, but in total I walked 15 miles that day with my friends and we had already covered one-fifth of that distance by 11 a.m.

I walked from that tiny building on top of the hill to...

...this. Ridiculous, right? All before 11 a.m.

For a little over a week I had been studying French in Nice, France with the rest of my fellow DePauw students, and while my short time in France had been almost dreamlike so far, it had also been slightly eye-opening to flip the switch from my American lifestyle to the European lifestyle. I loved going to the fresh fruit and vegetable market along the Cours Saleya nearly everyday (heads up: white peaches are the best!), but it took awhile for me to shake the feeling of being constantly thirsty; I’m sure my classmates could say the same.

I knew Europeans were notoriously known for not putting ice in their water, but what I did not realize until actually living on my own in France after a few days was that water is not cheap in Europe, nor do people use their tap water in excess. I had been to Europe before, but always with my family. I had no idea that the water provided at meals was, a majority of the time, at least €5. Going to the Monoprix or Carrefour, I quickly saw that the water aisle had certainly been pecked over more than the grocery stores I frequented at home. The tap water in Nice is safe to drink, but as the IES Abroad staff told us, water in France is more precious than it is in the United States, so be sure to always carry a water bottle and drink constantly throughout the day.

I know that this seems like a simple lesson to stay hydrated but it was one that I was shocked into learning, and I wasn’t the only one among my group. I needed to be aware of my water intake during the day because you walk nearly everywhere in Europe and I was only in my little apartment at night due to touring Nice and enjoying the beach throughout the day after going to class. According to my iPhone, my daily walking average was around six miles everyday, and that number needed to be balanced out with an appropriate intake of water.

I learned about the importance of drinking water while studying and traveling abroad in a way slightly more traumatic than my friends and classmates: I threw up six days into my stay. A bad ham sandwich, an exhaustingly steep hike up to the village of Eze, and too few sips of water before, during and after the hike is not a fun combination. From then on, I made sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day.

My weapon of choice for combating dehydration: a reusable water bottle of course! It’s not fun to consistently drop about €2-3 on a small bottle of less than cold water, so I made sure to always be carrying my water bottle with me, and I was thankful to myself at the end of everyday because Nice is hot and many rooms that I occupied throughout the day were not air conditioned.

The water bottle that I brought with me was my S’well water bottle, and I cannot emphasize enough how great it is, especially when traveling around Europe. What is so great about S’well, or any insulated water bottle, is that it keeps water cold for a long period of time. In S’well’s case, the bottle keeps water cold for 24 hours. This was perfect for me because my refrigerated water never became warm and thus unpleasant to drink. Although the bottle can be bulky and there is always an awkward pause when someone drops it on a hard floor, it was the best thing I brought with me to Europe apart from good walking shoes.

I became especially grateful for bringing my S’well water bottle with me on my first weekend away from Nice and not succumbing to just reusing a smaller plastic bottle like my friends did even though it would have been more convenient. That first weekend outside of Nice, while in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, I had walked fifteen miles with hardly any break. It was exhausting but thankfully I had already learned the hard way about staying hydrated in Europe.

As I wrote before, this is a simple lesson, but one I feel we all but forget in the excitement of studying abroad and traveling to the places we had constantly pinned away on Pinterest.