Getting back into the swing of school and life on campus is difficult. Post-abroad struggles are real. In fact, they have a name: reverse culture shock. My abroad program even sent us all a list of “10 Re-entry Challenges” that students have when they return home from abroad. I agree with all ten challenges and I could probably write ten, or even five hundred more challenges.
I felt lucky to have the summer months, my internships, and the comfort of living at home to cushion my time between abroad life in Madrid and real life as an American college student. However last week, I found myself on campus again. Luckily, I had been able to see a lot of my friends throughout the summer. No offense to the friends that I didn’t get a chance to see over the summer—I’m not saying I forgot about you (although it’s possible that I did)—but I honestly had forgotten how many people I would know when I came back to campus.
With fewer than 100 students on my abroad program, about ten local Spanish compañeros assigned to my program, a couple other friends of friends that I knew studying abroad on different programs sprinkled throughout the city, and the other American students I met at different schools, I basically knew no one in the entire city of Madrid. Madrid has 3.16 million people; I knew like 0.00003% of them. I might as well have been an ameba.
Where am I going with this information? Basically, I forgot about our campus’ social culture that simply happens outdoors, on the streets, walking to and from class, at Mel’s, and just on campus in general. I feel an unusual mix of comforting fondness and overwhelming anxiety to be back in the middle of it. Also, what is with all of this wifi and cell service?!
Study abroad differs all across the globe, but in Europe a lot of programs scatter their students around cities in apartments, homestays, and seemingly random student residences. In Madrid, my roomies and I lived in an apartment sort of close to school, but not super close to any of our other friends. For the most part, everyone lived in completely different areas of the city. Most of the local Spanish students in Madrid live at home throughout college and commute to school, and so none of the locals think that this set up is weird. However, coming from most American schools, it’s pretty different.
Sometimes I would go on walks for hours around Madrid, exploring miles out of my way, experiencing incredible culture and history, but I would not see a single familiar face. I loved every second of abroad (not including day one lol, let’s be real), but adjusting to leaving your family and friends in NYC takes effort. 1.6 million people live on the island of Manhattan. Obviously I know a mini miniscule percentage of them, but I definitely know exponentially more people than I did in Madrid.
A huge difference simply lies in the unique culture of our campus in Morningside Heights, squished in the midst of NYC. The socializing culture on our campus could not be more different than abroad because of the fact that we all live so close to each other. In my week back on campus, or two weeks back, I’ve lost track…I continue to surprise myself with how many faces I know when walking around. If I don’t know them personally, then I know a friend of theirs, a club they’re in, or maybe I just recognize them because their Instagram is public.
So, I’ll be back soon with another installment of how to do/how to attempt to do post-abroad life. To everyone currently abroad, please enjoy every ounce of culture, food, travel, and history that you can. Take advantage of everything. For now, thanks for the mems Madrid; I’ll never forget you.