A year ago today, I was most likely stumbling home from a fraternity party, passing by single family homes stuffed with college kids in Edikted going-out tops. Today, I am still stumbling home, but this time I am passing by a cathedral that began construction 700 years before I was born. I’m surrounded by people from all over the world, who have come to see the wonder of central Italy (except the men who try to sell roses to tourists, those men see it everyday). Before studying abroad, I assumed my world would be turned absolutely upside-down in the most aesthetically pleasing way. In reality, my world has been turned upside-down, but it hasn’t always been Instagram-worthy.Â
There have been plenty of moments from my first month studying abroad that have felt like an image saved on Pinterest. I have swam in the Mediterranean Sea and felt the sun toast my saltwater skin. I have sipped on a Hugo Spritz while eating a gigantic bowl of pasta. I have walked through hidden alleyways and pet stray cats. But for every picture-perfect moment, there has been at least one moment where I have thought, “What the hell am I doing?”Â
The Chianti Was Great. The Burglary Was Not.
It was a sunny, late-summer day in the Tuscan countryside. Six of my roommates and I had been wine tasting all day, and we’d finally gotten on the bus to head back home. Obviously, it was the perfect time to go through all the photos of the day to find the perfect Instagram story post. As I scrolled through hundreds of shots of half-filled wine glasses and my roommates frolicking through vineyards, my three remaining roommates texted our group chat.Â
“Did you guys dump out our purses on our beds before you left today?”Â
The quick answer was no. Of course none of us did that. After twenty minutes of panicking and lots of texting, we determined that someone had broken into our apartment. Suddenly, the Instagram story felt a little less important.
We spent the rest of the bus ride trying to figure out what had happened, calling our program staff and frantically texting our roommates for updates. By the time we got home, our roommates had called the police, and our apartment was in disarray. The burglars went through every drawer, closet and bag looking for something worth stealing.
Somehow, after all of that, I still had an Instagram story to post. Apparently, getting robbed in Florence was not enough to stop me from maintaining the illusion of my effortlessly glamorous study abroad experience. Naturally, I posted a picture from the wine tasting.
Nothing says studying abroad in Italy quite like a photo of a Tuscan vineyard posted from an apartment that had just been burglarized.
Work-Life Balance (If You Can Get to Work)
Navigating in a new city is something that comes with the territory of studying abroad. It seemed exciting at first, my roommates and I posting aesthetic pictures of medieval alleyways and tiny sidewalks. It was exciting at first, until I ran through the city of Florence during a thunderstorm.
My commute to work is usually a peaceful walk that only takes about 30 minutes. Unfortunately for me, on only my second day of work, this was not the case. It started to thunderstorm, and of course I didn’t have an umbrella, so I just accepted I would have to walk in the rain. No biggie, right? Wrong.
Since it was my second day of work, I had no idea where I was going. I did what any wise person would do, and opened the map app on my phone, only to find that I had no service.
So there I was, walking through the streets of Florence in the pouring rain, trying to remember what my office looked like and hoping I would eventually stumble into the right building. And because getting lost in a foreign city during a thunderstorm wasn’t enough, I was hit by a taxi as it turned a corner. Although the accident didn’t hurt me physically, it most definitely hurt my ego as I fell on the side of the street. The whole incident was reminiscent of a cartoon character and a banana peel. Â
I wish I could say this was the moment I gave up and went home. Instead, I continued trying to make it to work, now soaking wet, lost and very late. After 20 more minutes wandering the streets like a lost puppy, I admitted defeat and went back to my apartment.
I did not make it to work that day, but Instagram never found out.
When I got home, I posted a picture of the office cat that I had taken the day before. To anyone watching my Instagram story, I was just another study abroad girl casually posting her cute office cat, before starting her day at a sophisticated Italian internship.
Honestly, that might be the most accurate representation of my study abroad experience: sometimes you are exactly where you want to be, and sometimes you are posting like you are somewhere you never even made it to.
The Reality Behind The PhotosÂ
Instagram can show you where someone is, but not what is happening around them.
A picture of a wine glass in the Tuscan countryside does not show you the apartment you are going home to after getting robbed. A picture of an office cat does not mean you successfully made it to work that day. A picture in front of a Pinterest-esque cafè does not show you the 45 minutes you spent walking in circles trying to find it.
I don’t want this to sound like studying abroad is some huge disaster that Instagram is hiding from you. The truth is, I have had some of the most fun and memorable experiences of my life here, but the perfect moments are only part of the story.
If you are getting ready to study abroad, my biggest piece of advice is to let yourself have the imperfect days, too. Get lost. Miss a train. Order the wrong thing at a restaurant. Have a day where you don’t take a single picture. Call your mom when you are overwhelmed. When something completely ridiculous happens, laugh about it! Those are probably the stories you will end up sharing the most.
Take the pictures, post the pictures and romanticize your life as much as you want. Just remember that the photo is a snapshot, not the whole story.
And truthfully, the best study abroad memories are the ones that would have made the worst Instagram posts.