My semester abroad started with a whirl wind of emotions resulting arriving in a foreign country I had always dreamed of going to but also being so far from the country I had always called home. I moved into my apartment and met three girls who will remain my friends for the rest of my life. We quickly began to explore Florence and soak in the new culture. We learned to love every aspect of the culture. The way they took time to enjoy things was my favorite part. Italian culture taught me to take a couple minutes to enjoy and think about things instead of rush and stress through life. There was so much more of a peaceful bliss surrounding the Italian home and social lives.
At FUA I was taught language in a way I had never been taught before. Attending language classes in America consisted of a class of 25 students that never got the time to interact in the language. Instead, we learned a lot out of a book which for me was not helpful in learning a language. In Florence, there were five students in the class with a teacher who only spoke Italian. The entire class consisted of slow conversation for us to get the hang of that method. We also had the class two and a half hours every morning with a much appreciated coffee break. The class also included culture activities in the town, conversation exchange, lecture days, and a movie day weekly. The class not only taught me the language in one semester in which I had not learned in 5 semesters worth of Italian, the class also taught us the culture. The structure of the Italian immersion class could not have been better for stress free learning which allowed for true understanding of the Italian language. I could not have hoped or asked for a better class to learn the language as I had wished to.
Being abroad also opened up opportunities to travel that I could never have dreamed of. Trains, buses and planes were extremely affordable abroad. I was able to see monuments and explore cities I had never imagined in my wildest dreams I would have been able to see. I travelled to many cities in Italy and cities in Western Europe. Having such access to travel gave me the courage to do it. While travelling I learned a lot about myself I could not have learned without the experiences.
Along with the travels I met friends I could never replace. I met people abroad that had a lot of the same dreams about the world and their futures as I did. I learned from them and experiences how much we as Americans need to grow in our understandings of other ways of living. Going abroad made me understand that many Americans that I have met are extremely ignorant to other ways of life as I was. For example, the use of public transportation, walking often, the food and wine culture, other systems of shared resources that work well, and saving energy are all things that many Americans do not think to change. When living in a culture that was more aware of energy and enjoyed being outdoors more than ours I learned to love it and wish in America we could learn to try to do more of these things.
All in all, my experience abroad taught me so much in and out of the class room I could have never learned in any other way. It was an experience I will never forget.
– Michaela, University of South Carolina
