Reflecting Back
Being abroad taught me a lot about myself and how I deal with different difficulties I experience. Since I only live about and hour away from Northeastern, this is the first time I have been truly away from home for a while. I left for the program the day after my last exam and that along with the time difference led me to feel homesick at times. I didn’t want to let that feeling ruin my experience so I had to find ways around that. Also in the past when I have traveled with my parents or with my school, all of the logistics were taken care of. During my time abroad I had to be a lot more self-sufficient in terms of scheduling weekend trips and transportation. But I learned that I actually do enjoy planning trips and scheduling activities.
I really enjoyed the classes I took abroad and how they were taught. Going into the program I was worried I wouldn’t enjoy it because I knew I was taking an accounting class and I didn’t enjoy the accounting class I had taken first semester. However, I am glad I gave it another chance because I actually really enjoyed the course I took abroad. This class made more sense to me and I found the group work we did enjoyable. I wouldn’t say that either of the classes made me want to switch my concentration, but they definitely made me consider the possibility of adding a second one or using my electives to take similar classes.
Going into the program I was nervous about the workload and the culture shock. I decided that I didn’t want these things to ruin my experience so I just took it one day at a time. I made sure to stay ahead of my wok and not let it pile up, that way I would have the weekends completely free to enjoy being abroad. In terms of culture shock, it was not as much of a problem as I expected because I had American students with me and American professors teaching my classes, so that fear was alleviated early on for me. In fact, I loved observing the way of life in France and the other countries I visited. Just walking around the city seeing the local people and how they go about their days was so interesting to me. The culture in France is very different than it is in America. I would say that it is more relaxed, which was nice to experience!
The best thing about studying abroad is that it is an experience like no other. In 5 weeks I was able to not only earn credits for school, but also visit 4 countries and 8 cities. At no other time in my life would I be able to just go explore Europe for 5 weeks with 6 of my good friends unless I won the lottery. Studying Abroad opened the door to so many experiences that I otherwise would not be able to experience. I would love to study abroad again. I think the next time I would go to an English speaking country just because it would make day to day life a lot easier. Also I would probably want to study abroad Summer 2 instead of 1 that way I have time to spend with my family before I leave because I think that would alleviate some of the homesickness I felt.
I have trouble picking a single favorite experience of the tripe because I was away for so long and I visited so many places, but I absolutely loved my weekend trip to London because while I was there I stayed with one of my best friends from School which was nice because I missed her and she was able to show me around where she grew up. I was glad that I got to see both the touristy aspects and the local aspects of London because it was different than the rest of my weekend trips.
