I’m about to start my freshman year at Northeastern University — very far from Boston.
My name’s Eve, and this fall, the university’s N.U.in Program is sending me and 154 other freshmen abroad to Thessaloniki, Greece for our first semester of college. There are just a couple of days before I leave, and I can’t wait to write about all the inevitable adventures of studying abroad at the age of seventeen!
So first, a quick bit about this program. N.U.in is not something I applied for. As a matter of fact, it came to me as a total surprise – in the second paragraph of my acceptance letter. The program allows NEU to accept more freshmen than they have Boston housing for in the fall, as there’s always extra room in January when so many upperclassmen go abroad in the spring. A few hundred applicants from each new class are chosen to be offered admission through the program, and those who accept are sent to one of five study abroad locations in the fall. It’s a completely new way of doing things – and I just couldn’t resist.
I got very mixed reactions when I told friends and family I’d been offered a spot to study in Greece. At first, my parents told me there was no chance they were going to let me go that far away. When my high school friends heard the city name Thessaloniki, they thought I was joking! Some people gushed about how lucky I was, that I just had to say yes, while others would lecture me, about everything from terrorism and the economic crisis to the importance of a ‘normal college experience.’
I admit a lot of those people were right. I knew I wanted to study abroad at some point, but to do it before anything else, and in such a foreign place as Greece, seemed borderline crazy. But I couldn’t get my mind off of it. I’ve always loved traveling, and getting to see more of the world even sooner than planned seemed like a chance that was well worth its own strangeness. So, somewhere in between that late night I first opened my letter, and the bright spring afternoon that I sent in my enrollment deposit with shaking fingers, I managed to convince my parents that this was going to be worth it.
A blink of an eye later, here I am. My high school graduation came and went, now summer’s over, and I’m at home packing my bags. It’s T-minus two days until I leave, and I’m as excited as ever! The only concern I’m left with now is that my mountain of clothes is still dwarfing the size of my suitcase.It occurred to me more with every passing day this summer that this is, in fact, really happening. The uniform T-shirt that I have to wear to the airport is now draped over the back of my desk chair, staring at me as I finish packing. Its red block letters spell out the N.U.in program’s proud slogan: BREAK OUT OF THE ORDINARY. No kidding.
Any real nerve-racking worries I had were quelled back in July, when I went to the overnight pre-departure orientation in Boston. I met the international staff, and the other kids that are going to be studying with me. As soon as I got there, it was evident that everyone who’d made the same decision I did was in the same state: reasonably nervous, but even more eager and impatient to go. There was so much positive energy that day, and in those few hours, I could feel a bond forming already. None of us know what we’ve gotten ourselves into. It’s going to be really scary, difficult and definitely life-changing. But clearly, each of us were just too intrigued by the idea of diving in, and taking a chance on something totally out of the ordinary.
So. What happens when a university sends 155 freshmen to Greece for their first three months? I’m about to find out. Stay tuned.