Dear Future Study Abroaders...

Dear future study abroaders,

WARNING: the trip you are about to go on will be life-changing.

First things first, when it comes to packing or trying to figure out what you’ll experience, everyone is going to tell you something different. I remember trying to talk to as many people as I could that had previously studied abroad and every one of them had some sort of insight as to what it would be like and what I should do to prepare. The first thing I’m going to tell you about coming abroad is that no one truly knows what it is going to be like. No one person can tell you every single thing that you’ll need, what your going to experience, or what you’ll miss. All I hope to do is inform you on some of the things I wished I had known or thought about before I left.

Don’t take everything you hear too seriously. I made that mistake once or twice. I panicked about sleeping in dirty hostels with sketchy people lurking and waiting for me to leave so they could steal all my stuff. I stressed about bringing too many of this or too little of that. Take the things your loved ones (and random advice you find on the internet) tell you, to heart, but don’t think that it’s all 100% true. It may be true for them, or for me, but not necessarily you. This semester will be about making mistakes and finding yourself in less than ideal situations. You'll find yourself having to rely on your intuition and gut feelings more than ever.

Keep an open mind. This is probably the most valuable piece of advice I can offer. In order to fully experience all that a country can offer, you must step outside of your comfort zone, let go of expectations, and try things that may seem weird or foreign to you.

Pack medicine! You will not find things like Advil and Nyquil and you ­will need it at one point or another. Trust me, when that cold or headache hits, you’ll be very happy you packed it!

Expect an emotional roller coast ride. There’s something about studying abroad that really intensifies your feelings and experiences. Between different time zones, missed flights, language barriers, money conversions, outlet conversions, pickpocketers, no wifi, jet lag, and a long time away from family and friends, studying abroad can get pretty stressful, but you will be OK! Consider every obstacle a challenge and face it head on with grace and confidence.

Enjoy your home base. Within the first week of classes, many were already off exploring Europe. Myself included. But try to make time to get to know your new home and explore your neighborhood. 

Call your family and friends. Or Skype, e-mail, facebook, blog, snail mail….anything to keep them up to date on what's going on in your new and exciting life. Do this sparingly though, if you are in touch with loved ones back home 24/7, it will be harder to fully immerse yourself in your present situation and may leave you feeling homesick or even wishing you could be back doing what your friends and family are doing.

Take in all you can from the people you meet along the way. Studying abroad exposes you to new places, foods, languages and most importantly, people. Whether it's the German/Polish photographer you meet at a bistro in Paris or a Brazilian hostel-mate in Ireland, everyone travels for different reasons, and everyone has something to share and something to teach, including you.

Travel!  Oh, I cannot stress this enough! Traveling around Europe is cheap and easy. Yes, I may have had to wake up at 4 am to catch an 8 am flight on occasion, but I wouldn’t take it back for anything. I was worried about how I was going to pay for my travels but if you do your research, you can spend a weekend in any city you want for a reasonable price. Book your flights early; find a decent hostel and go! That’s all there is to it. Explore that place you’ve always wanted to see – or pick some place completely random. Some of my favorite trips were the ones that were never on my radar before going abroad. So don’t worry about not knowing exactly how to get where you’re going because getting there is half the fun. Europe has a surplus of different things to offer, and I promise you, there will never be a dull moment.

Realize that you won’t ever be the same. By choosing to study abroad, you are inherently agreeing to step miles and miles outside your comfort zone in order to find something you feel is missing. Studying abroad is a personal journey both literally and figuratively that affects everyone differently at different times. When I returned to the States, it took a couple weeks for me to figure out how to fit my newly invigorated, adventurous and well-traveled self back into the life I left behind. Reverse culture shock is real, but keeping in touch with the people I traveled with and talking about my experiences with others definitely helps keep it alive.

I could sit here and go on and on about the do’s and don’ts of studying abroad but for me, learning all of those things turned out to be some of the best life lessons I’ve ever experienced. The bottom line is – your semester/year/summer/week abroad is going to be the most spectacular time of your life; that I can say with complete confidence for every single person. You will learn more than you could have ever imagined about yourself and the world. I truly don’t believe anyone could ever regret studying abroad. So if you’re going to take one thing from this post, I hope it's this; don’t spend too much time worrying because half of the things that you experience while abroad, good and bad, you’d never expect or be able to anticipate. So just make the best of every crazy situation and never regret a second of your time abroad because one day you’ll blink and you’ll only have a few weeks left.

P.S. If have any questions related to Study Abroad, any at all, please do not hesitate to message me via Facebook or shoot me an e-mail. I am more than happy to share advice, packing tips, recommendations on where to go , insight from experiences or really any thing related to travel!

Reverse Culture Shock

The moment I got in the car with my family at the airport to go home, it felt as if my entire semester in Florence had been a dream. In my jet-lagged daze, I remember quietly asking myself if the past four months had been real or if I had just had imagined them. The ending to my semester in Europe was probably the most sudden ending to anything in my life. For almost five months, living in Europe was my life and in less than 24 hours, I was back to my “normal” life.

Before any student leaves to study abroad, there are countless thoughts swirling through their minds as they wonder what life will be like over these next few months. The mental battle waged between the fear of the unknown and the thrill of adventure penetrates the whole pre-departure process. I know that I personally a multitude of emotions before leaving, but while I was so consumed by thinking about the challenges I would face abroad, I never stopped to think about the challenges I would face when returning home. This is one aspect of a study abroad experience that I think gets overlooked by students until they actually experience it. But the thing is, there is no way to truly prepare someone for it.

I’ve heard various perspectives about reverse culture shock but one that’s been repeated time and again says that when you return from studying abroad, you will have changed dramatically as an individual but everything and everyone back home will have remained the same. I speak from experience when I say it’s a very surreal realization. You return home after so much has happened to you and you can’t quite grasp why it feels like you were out of touch with “reality” for so long. It’s like you just woke up from a one of those very realistic dreams and realize that only a few hours has passed when it felt like days. I recall coming home after four months in Italy and seeing that my town looked exactly the same, the baristas I have come to know at Starbucks were still there, and my room looked just as I had left it. I had missed my family and friends and felt overjoyed to see them again, but it was hard to accept that nothing and no one had truly changed, except me. I was seeing the same things I remembered, but through a very different pair of eyes.

The first few weeks back were very strange to say the least. On the one hand it was easy; I could use English everywhere I went, confidently order a coffee without feeling ignorant, and I no longer had to mentally convert Euros to Dollars. 

On the other hand though, the same things that came back quickly reminded me of what I was missing. Trying to pass myself off as an Italian, casually grabbing gelato after class and living life at a slower, more relaxed pace. But the absence that I felt most was the indescribable feeling of discovery, the distinct rush I felt as I realized that I was experiencing Italy firsthand and that I was actually living on my own as a resident of a foreign country. Pair this with the sense that even when I performed a mundane task, like walking down a city street, I was surrounded by history and culture on a truly magnificent scale, something I had never experienced before. 

Time, as they say, heals all and the initial awkwardness I felt being back home was eventually replaced by old routines taking over like muscle memory. Reality began to fall back into place as I realized that I had responsibilities and priorities to deal with. As I started to resume my daily life, another realization began to sink in. I understood that there was one final, unstated, side of reverse culture shock that could take effect if I wasn’t careful. It’s a subtle development that doesn’t even feel like it’s happening. As I started to remember my life in the States, I was at risk of forgetting my life in Florence. The true challenge of reverse culture shock is not remembering life back home, given enough time that’s an inevitable result. As the pattern of everyday life consumes your attention, the much more difficult challenge will present itself to those who don’t want to forget their time abroad.

I know this sounds like a negative situation, but there is no doubt that this can be spun into something positive. While remembering can be difficult, the word “difficult” is certainly not the same as “impossible”. I have found plenty of ways to keep my time in Italy alive and well in my memory and in my everyday life. And that right there is a very big reward for those who are able to see reverse culture shock in a different light and appreciate the incredible perspective it bestows.

A Final Farewell

Ciao in Italian is both a greeting and a goodbye. It seems only fitting. It feels as if just yesterday I was packing up my suitcase, saying goodbye to my family and boarding a plane bound to this unknown, foreign land that has now completely captivated my heart.

Fast-forward four months: as I write this, it is June 15 and I am watching the city that I’ve grown to love get smaller and smaller as my plane takes off. There are tears rolling down my face as I say goodbye to what was, of course, “the best four months of my life.”

Any one of those worn-out clichés, the ones so often used to describe the life-changing nature of one’s time abroad and the inevitable, yet bitter-sweet departure, would be fitting for this final post. For in many ways, I don’t think I can really put this whole experience into my own words yet, let alone comprehend the enormous effects it has had on me. That’s not to say that I’m unhappy to be journeying back to the States, quite the opposite. For while being abroad is wonderful, an essential aspect of this whole ordeal is coming home, reconnecting with loved ones, and reflecting on time spent gallivanting around Europe.

While thinking about all of my experiences these past four months, I am reminded of a quote from Mr. Bilbo Baggins: “It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to…” I think it’s safe to say that in this sense I failed at keeping my feet while abroad, and I couldn’t be happier for it. From Santorini, Paris and Prague, to Dublin, Edinburgh and Zurich, as well as the countless other amazing cities I got ‘swept off to’ this year, there was almost never a plan, but almost every trip ended up being full of ridiculous adventure and laughter… the way trips should be.

It may take a while to fully understand the ways in which my time abroad changed me; however, I can say with absolute certainty that these past four months have been absolutely extraordinary, and I plan on jumping at the next opportunity to get back to Europe (or anywhere really)… regardless of the fact that I have no idea where I’d get swept off to thereafter.

Study abroad is one of those rare life experiences that truly meets every expectation associated with it. Incredibly, it really is life changing. I got everything I ever could have hoped for, not in the way I planned, but on a surprising and more rewarding scale. I love traveling and embracing other aspects of the world, but physically living in a foreign country gave me insight in reverse: I now appreciate home more than ever.

So all I have left to say is thank you. Thank you study abroad for opening my eyes to see that the world is so much bigger than I ever could have imagined. For helping me grow as a person and get over my fear of asking strangers for directions. For opening my heart to more easily accept other people, and love the ones back home even more. For introducing me to the most amazing friends I am so blessed to have met. For allowing me to endlessly indulge in carbs, wine and gelato galore. For making me realize that I truly don’t need most of what I have to live happily. For helping me travel to places I've only ever dreamed of. But most of all, thank you for giving me the world. My life has been forever changed and I could not be happier.

To my family, friends, and anyone who has been following this blog these past four months, a simple thank you just doesn’t feel like enough. There is no easy way to express the amount of appreciation and thankfulness I have in my heart. But without your constant love, encouragement and support, I would not be where I am today. Grazie millie!

Comfort Zones

In one of my fashion photography classes, our assignment was a little different than normal. We were told to step out from behind the camera and play the role of the model for a day and photograph each other versus a professional model. I was a tad apprehensive about this at first. I have always preferred being behind the camera and tense up when it’s my turn be photographed. That being said, if there is one thing I can take away from my experience studying abroad, it’s that sometimes we need to get out of our comfort zone, even if it means being uncomfortable.

 

  One of the greatest things about study abroad is that it forces you to step out of your comfort zone. Whether that means cooking for the first time, climbing what seems like an insurmountable mountain, or learning the ins and outs of a completely unfamiliar city, study abroad really tests your patience and your persistence.

 I thought I had it all figured out. My mental checklist was complete, my tour guidebooks were packed, and I had exhausted myself with endless Google and Pinterest searches on what this whole study abroad experience was all about.

I have to say that all of these things gave me a great foundation for coming to Florence, but study abroad is an experience you can only have by actually doing it; I can't express this enough. Nothing I read could have prepared me for the wonderful things I have experienced, the cultural and language glitches I've laughed over, and the people here that have impacted me in such a short time. I cannot imagine going through the rest of my academic career without having broadened my scope of the world.

I'm still in disbelief that there is only week left of school. Time goes by much to quick here and I just wish it would slow down! Wish me luck as I spend the next few days buried in finals and packing!

Where did the time go?

A letter I received from my dad the other day left me the sudden realization that my time here is almost up. One month. Just one month. I have reached the point in the semester where there is more time behind me than before me. It's hard to wrap my brain around the fact that there is only a month left until I return to the States. 

You could say it's finally hit me that I am leaving soon. I'm beginning to question myself too much. Have I gone all the places I want to go? Am I using my time wisely? Am I doing well enough in school? Have I learned enough Italian? How am I going to say goodbye to all the friends I have made here? How am I going to adjust to going back to the States?

Like many other study abroad students around me, I’ve had my fair share of “oh my gosh it's almost over” moments (particularly this week). But what I’ve come to realize is that I should be looking forward to what I have planned for the remainder of my time abroad and take advantage of all that’s laid in front of me.

Here's a glimpse into what the next month looks like for me...

-A week and a half of class left.

-Too many finals and projects.

-Too many goodbyes I don't want to say.

-Too much gelato needed to be eaten.

-A visit from my good friend, Morgan!

-A 2 week adventure with Meghan to Ireland, Scotland, and Paris.

-Meeting up with my family in Switzerland and traveling with them for a week!

-Back to Florence one last time...

-Fly home!

Seriously, where did the time go?!

Hidden Gems of Europe

Because traveling in Europe is such a vast place, many end up hopping between the most well-known cities (London, Barcelona, Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, Rome – sound familiar?) but never explore beneath the surface into what this continent, particularly the Eastern fringes, really has to offer.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to discover two of Europe's hidden gems: Split, Croatia and Mostar, Bosnia. To be honest, neither of these two countries were on my radar of places to visit while here. But when a couple friends and I were searching for places to visit, we stumbled upon Croatia and eagerly jumped at the chance to explore an entirely different kind of country. I found excitement in the fact that I had no idea what I would encounter!

Getting to Croatia consisted of a lengthy, overnight, 12 hour bus ride that we were quite happy to get off of by the time we arrived the following morning. After freshening up, we set out to discover all that Croatia had to offer. 

Split, Croatia is a charming old town made up mostly of a giant old Roman Palace. The buildings were all made of ancient stone with orange clay roofs and the streets were small, winding, and seemed to offer endless new discoveries. 

Our day was well spent walking along the water, dining on local cuisine and basking in the sun. (When there were breaks from the rain that is!) What I loved most about Split was its' proximity to the coast, as well as being surrounded by a small mountain range. 

The next morning, we awoke early, hopped on another bus, and headed to Mostar, Bosnia!

We spent our time walking down the friendly pedestrianized street full of mosques and markets and  eventually found ourselves in front of Mostar’s most famous monument, the old bridge.

On our final day in Croatia, we headed for Krka National Park, about 2 hours away from Split. I didn't know much about where we were going, but was pleasantly surprised to discover the majestic scenery before me. Wooden paths, waterfalls, clear green-blue waters, greenery and nature everywhere you look. It was nice to spend time in such an incredibly serene setting. 

After our time at Krka was up, it was back on the bus for another 12 hour bus ride back home to Florence!

Hi ho hi ho..it's off to the Alps I go!

 After spending a day in the Tuscan countryside, I was up in the wee hours of the morning to set off on yet another great adventure. Destination: The Italian Alps, Lake Garda and Verona.

 Driving through the Alps of Italy was nothing short of spectacular. Our first stop was Trento, a quaint and winsome city cupped between the Dolomite mountains. The town and scenery it offered was incredible; snow capped mountains, trickling rivers and streams, medieval arches and alleyways, it seemed almost surreal. Our day was spent off the beaten path as we hiked our way through the dense woods and towering mountains.

 The next morning, we made our way to the largest lake in Italy: Lake Garda. When it comes to beautiful lakeside scenery, stunning mountain backdrops and picturesque towns and villages, Lake Garda is a breathtaking sight not to be missed.

After a wonderful couple of hours by the lake, we headed for our last destination: Verona.

 There are so many self-proclaimed cities of love – Paris, Venice, and even Florence have been some of the most romantic destinations, But to visit the birthplace of Romeo and Juliet is something most of us would have to have on our bucket lists.

 Verona was like a step back in time and really captured the true history of Italy.