As a student who had been struggling with lack of motivation, the Seattle blues, and having trouble finding my purpose in my studies, I discovered study abroad as an option. At first, I was really hesitant. It was scary for me to think about leaving all my friends, family, and comfortable spaces behind. But throughout these past couple of weeks, I have absolutely zero regrets.
As a psych major, I was not too sure about what I wanted to study, and when I landed on this program, it was looking at the world in a perspective I had never looked at before: through food! As someone who loves food, I was really excited to have a shift in my learning on something I love. We have cooked group meals together, engaged in fascinating lectures at the UW Rome center on olive oil, herbal medicines, the FAO, and learning about how food and meals are much more than just fuel, but they are an experience, and a part of Italian culture.
It was scary not knowing anyone going into this program, but once we settled in, everyone had been so lovely, and you end up building a community together, especially in a school-led program such as this. We had multiple pre-departure meetings where we had opportunities to get to know each other, and be able to get an opportunity to pick room mates and get comfortable with a couple people to start. For me, throughout the program I had trouble initially making really strong connections with a couple people, but what I found that ended up working for me was being able to get to know everyone rather than just a couple people. Over the course of 7 weeks, I made my rounds through everyone, which I believe enriched my experience as a whole because similar to themes I was learning abroad, I was able to see so many different perspectives of why people came here, what they were here for, and in the end made a bunch of friends out of it! If you are worried about making friends abroad, it is so much easier than it looks, especially in a program that is very group oriented. Eventually we all mushed together and it ended up being really hard to leave because we all had a strong bond!
In terms of relationships back home, or getting home sick, for me it was really easy to stay in touch with family and friends back at home! In fact, usually we had a lot of free time in the evening, which was morning for my friends and family back home, so at the end of each day, if I was feeling tired or overwhelmed, or missing my people, it was super easy to give them a call before bed, and go on an evening stroll and catch up. Because I was able to stay well in touch with everyone, I personally never really got home sick, also because I remembered how crazy of an experience I was having, my focus was more on living in the moment.
As someone who had never lived with more than one person, I had a really positive room mate experience the whole way! I lived with 4-6 people in each location, and it was really easy to get the hang of communication, dividing up the house work, and making sure everyone was comfortable. Because there were usually a lot of roommates, sometimes it was hard to get space for myself. But that was the benefit of being in Rome: many spots were just right outside my door! I could go get gelato and have some quiet time, or watch the sunset by the river. Or if I had the opposite problem, like I wanted someone to talk to or hangout with, I could knock on a roomie’s door or walk upstairs to my neighbors who were also in the program! It was so much fun honestly, and it was a great way to get closer with everyone, especially since each time I had new roommates.
The learning activities were super interactive, as this was a food/cooking based program. A lot of our cooking was done at our professors apartment (as you will see pictured) and EVERYONE got a chance to have hands-on experiences. There were also plenty of opportunities to go explore sites, we went on many hikes, and learned so much history, the diversity in the activities was amazing. Something I also enjoyed about the learning style is that a lot of it was discussion based, especially our last couple of days being spent on a farm, and we had really personal experiences with the farmer and his family, and talking about it at group dinner was a wonderful way to enrich our learning experience.
For me, I would say I learned a lot about myself. I learned it is actually really easy to travel on your own! And that I can be capable of anything if I put my mind to it. I learned that learning means so many different things, whether it’s how to properly package and make olive oil, or how to taste wine, or how to make gnocchi, or how there is an overshadow of quality farmers markets nowadays because of famous markets being tourist traps. I learned how to navigate personal hardships when being far away from your support systems, and how to best support myself in times of need. I learned that sometimes, it is super important to put stressors aside, and realize where you are and what you are experiencing in life in your current day to day experiences.
Study abroad has so much to offer. You get an opportunity to learn about topics you may not have gotten the chance to explore on campus, meet people you may have never ended up running into before, and learning how to experience the world from a different lens, all while continuing your studies!
