Someone once said, "It's better to see something once, than to hear about it a thousand times!" This quote completely sums up my study abroad experience thus far. Throughout my lifetime I have known those who have taken the amazing journey of traveling abroad as well as seeing it through the movie screens, but to experience it first hand is unexplainable. My study abroad adventure began quite a while ago on May 24th, 19 days ago to be exact. The plane rides went very smoothly and I got to meet and talk with a lot of interesting people. My journey began in Omaha where me and my close friend from freshmen year, Mandy Cormaci, took off for Milan, Italy. From Omaha we landed in Charlotte, North Carolina where we hopped on our connecting flight to London, England. Once arriving in England it didn't feel much different until I entered the bathrooms. Never in my life had I seen such odd toilets. This was the biggest surprise for me! To flush I had to press a big round button on the wall. Isn't that weird? Mandy and I were quite drained from our 8 hour flight, but to find such strange toilets gave us a little comic relief and energy before getting on our next plane ride to Milan, Italy. I can't tell you what a relief it was to get to our destination safely and on time.
Since Mandy and I decided to come to Europe almost 2 weeks before our actual program began we had booked a hostel to stay at for our first night. The hostel provided us with very detailed directions on how to get from the Linate Airport to Koala Hostel. This was my first time in a hostel so I was a little suspicious and had no idea what to expect but it went great! We met so many interesting people from all around the world including the U.S., England, Australia, and Germany. I was so intrigued by their lifestyles, their culture, their food, their language, but most importantly their accents! We stayed up late discussing our very own lifestyles as well as the places we have visited and planned on visiting. Many of the individuals we met introduced us to useful apps we would need during our time abroad as well as shared their Facebook pages, Instagrams, and Snapchats. The next day Mandy and I decided to just go roam around the streets of Milan and get use to the place we would soon be calling our home. We had no idea what we were doing or what we had gotten ourselves into but we were thrilled to see what this trip had in store for us! While walking around we finally realized the difficulty of having a language barrier. We wouldn't always know if we were heading in the right direction so we would stop to ask somebody but hardly anyone spoke English. This was a huge learning curve but it definitely made us better at following directions and navigating ourselves with just a paper map! Yes Mom and Dad, I used an actual map to get from point A to point B! Are you proud? Haha! After spending a day in Milan, accidentally ending up in the town center, and eating our first Italian Pizza from the popular restaurant Spontini we headed to Croatia for our first Dreamtrips experience.
Croatia may have been the highlight of my trip thus far! We traveled to the Island of Korcula where we stayed in a 4-star hotel right on the water. The Adriatic Sea was the bluest and most clear water I have seen in my life and it really got me excited for this whole study abroad experience. In Korcula we were lucky enough to be able to lay out by the sea, go kayaking in the Adriatic Sea, take a walking tour through the old city of Korcula (Where supposedly Marco Polo was born), go on a semi-submarine (And no it wasn't yellow it was red), as well as take a half-day river boat cruise around 20 islands off of Croatia. Although all these events were amazing my most favorite part of our trip was making some new very close friends from Romania. Within just 5 days we became so close to our Romanian friends Coman, André, and Cristian. We did absolutely everything together and they taught us so much about their way of life and their language. I am proud to say not only have I learned some Italian but also some Romanian! These friends became so close that we still talk to them everyday and sometimes facetime. They are hoping to come visit us in America very soon. Thank you Croatia for the beautiful views, scenery, and activities but most importantly for introducing me to new friends.
Before leaving for Italy and my whole study abroad excursion people kept telling me to keep to myself and not talk to anyone, which I completely understand why but how are you suppose to immerse yourself into this lifestyle and culture by not talking to any of the locals? That is the biggest thing I have learned so far, don't be afraid to talk to the locals! That is exactly how I made such great friends in Croatia and how I found out where I needed to go sometimes. Although you need to be careful about who you talk to don't let it hold you back either because you never know who you could meet!
With that said I don't want anyone to get bored or annoyed by my long blog but I do have one piece of advice before I head off on my next adventure!
Advice #1: Keep your cellphone in a safe place and always right in front of you! Because if you set it somewhere for a second or if you keep it in a cardigan pocket there are some terrible people who will pit pocket you and steal your new cellphone. I'm talking from experience here people!
Until next time!
Arrivederci,
Lindsey Jo
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