I promised one more reflection-laden
post before signing off, and here it is! It may seem that there’s been a pretty
significant gap between this and my last post, but there’s a method to the
madness. After drafting a farewell post in early June, I decided that I wanted
to wait and rewrite later in the summer, when I’d had more time to reflect.
With the San Fermin Festival ending in Pamplona and my last straggling school
mates from UNAV finally headed home, now seemed like the perfect time to wrap
up this blog.
To
begin, I’d like to address some clichés. Before I left for Spain, people told
me that my semester abroad would be a life changing experience, my mind would
be broadened, and I’d make amazing friendships. For all my disdain for clichés,
they become popular for a reason. This was certainly true in my case, as all of
these adages proved to be accurate. Some say that there are five stages to
studying abroad: Excitement, disorientation, loneliness, homesickness, and
acceptance. While some days were better than others, overall I stayed in the
excitement filled honeymoon phase of my semester abroad for the whole five
months. As someone with a poor sense of direction, disorientation is somewhat
second nature, and I was never lonely with friends living minutes away from my
flat. In terms of homesickness, there were of course people and things I missed
from home, but never so extremely that I felt it impeded my experience.
One
of my greatest takeaways from my time in Pamplona is that the rest of the world
isn’t as America-centric as we tend to believe stateside. Though I previously
thought myself to be fairly worldly and enlightened, five months later I
realized that I’d been going through life with blinders on to the rest of the
world. Upon returning, I won’t say that I don’t still harbor a tendency towards
viewing my surroundings with somewhat of an all American bias, but I like to
think that I’ve at least widened my blinders and that I will continue to do so.
Now,
rather than continue to ramble about my nostalgia and the glory days in
Pamplona, here are my promised do’s and don’ts for studying abroad
Do:
1) Research your school and
city before choosing a program. Just because a city has an amazing nightlife
doesn’t mean the school has enough classes in your major, and a great school
might be in an area that you hate.
2) Take advantage of
activities and opportunities offered through your host university. They are
usually fun and can cost less than they would if you did them on your own.
3) Make friends with both
local and international students. It’s important to soak up the culture of your
“home” country, but you can learn a lot from your international peers as well!
4) Set aside long weekends
for more distant trips.
5) Budget wisely and
prioritize your expenditures.
Don’t:
1) Hang out exclusively with
people from your own country or school. You can do that every other semester.
2) Spend every weekend
travelling. It’s important to take time to establish your life in your home
city and that’s hard to do when you’re away during the most social part of the
week.
3) Travel to other countries
at the expense of seeing different parts of your home country. While it’s great
jetting off to Paris for the weekend, it’s important to explore the country
you’re studying in as well!
4) Get too wrapped up in
what’s going on back home. Talk to your friends and family, but don’t get so
sucked into what’s going on there that you distance yourself from what’s around
you. This also goes for home university friends studying abroad at other
schools.
5) Plan everything out in
advance. Spontaneous travel is fun and you’ll want to plan trips with your new
friends when you get there!
Thank you to everyone who has followed along with my
semester in Spain. It was the experience of a lifetime and one I’ll always be
thankful that I had. But for now, I’m off to find my next big adventure.
Hasta Luego!
