If there’s one thing that I’m happy I didn’t do immediately upon arriving in Florence, it’s travel. I jealously watched as groups caught flights to Budapest, Paris, Copenhagen, and more while I explored the city I’d just moved to, trying to get over my culture shock and grow comfortable in my new environment. I thought that I was missing out, falling behind.
As it turns out, I was being smart.
I didn’t travel out of Italy until my spring break, and then I really hit the ground running. Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, and France all in one week. I got back, stayed only a few days, and then was off to the Czech Republic. Now I’ve got one more trip: Hungary. And once I finish my time here, I’ll be off to Spain and back to France, this time to the south to enjoy the warmth of Nice and take day trips to Monaco. By the end of it, I will have been to just as many locations as those people had, but I’m still traveling – and they’ve stopped.
A few years ago, my friend studied abroad in Singapore. She traveled all around Asia, having an amazing international experience and exploring parts of the world I hope one day I will get to see. That being said, when she returned and I asked her about her time in Singapore, she said she hadn’t actually spent a single weekend in the city.
Traveling is so easy abroad. It’s cheaper, it’s fun, and it’s an easy way to make memories. Traveling is appealing and alluring – you can’t help but ache to explore places you’ve never seen. But in my opinion, it’s better to even out your experience by exploring your home country just as much as the surrounding region.
I can’t recommend traveling enough. I’ve had a blast visiting these places and I look forward to my upcoming trips. But I’m so glad I stuck around Florence and got to know my home city and the country that I’ve selected as my study abroad location, and I know that if I’d traveled any earlier than I have, I’d be burnt out by now. By the time I get back to the states, I’ll probably never want to get on a plane again.
If you’re going to study abroad, here’s my recommendation: make sure you’re spending at least a month in your original location. Maybe it’s two weeks one time, two weeks another, but around a fourth of your experience should be in the country you chose to study in. Consider other means of travel – I am so, so, so sick of planes. I would take an eight-hour train ride over a two-hour budget airplane at this point. I’m sick of airports, I’m sick of backpacks, I’m sick of delays and turbulence and squeezing myself into a seat that looks like it’s made out of cardboard. Consider switching up your means of travel to keep yourself from feeling like this.
That being said, definitely take advantage of the region you’re in. I’m not discouraging travel at all. I’ve had an amazing time exploring all of Europe – not just Southern Europe but Northern as well. But make sure you’re taking care of your mental health so that you’re actually enjoying the trips you’re taking, rather than going simply because you feel it is what you should do.
