Name: Emma Lambert
Year: Sophomore
Major: Nursing
Hometown: Portland
Where did you study abroad and for how long?
Salzburg, Austria for the fall semester.
What made you want to study abroad?
I’ve wanted to study abroad since I was in middle school and high school. I was never sure of which college I wanted to go to, but I knew that wherever I ended up I wanted to study abroad. Traveling, and just change in general, makes me nervous. But having the chance to explore something so new and unique makes it worth it. I wanted the opportunity to see and experience something completely different than what I knew.
What were some challenges of living in another country?
The first thing that comes to mind is the language barrier. I went to Austria with no knowledge of German. You have to adapt to being surrounded by a different language pretty quickly and learn to work around it. By the end of the semester I actually looked forward to hearing German again when I took weekend trips to surrounding countries with different native languages.
I think the biggest challenge for me over all was just being away from home. I loved all the experiences I had and the people I was surrounded by, but being away from friends and family here was definitely a struggle. I’ve grown up in Portland and love the community I have here, which is major part of why I chose to come to UP. My desire to just be around friends and family, who were quite literally a world away, was definitely the biggest challenge for me.
What was the most interesting or your favorite part of being abroad?
The best part was just seeing something new every day! I made it my goal when I started the semester to travel to at least four other countries besides Austria while I was there, and I succeeded! Just walking around in a new city or place was the most amazing experience. I was dead tired and exhausted half the time, but I was able to see cities I had only ever dreamed of seeing. Definitely worth it!
How different was the schooling experience?
In Salzburg there is a center where all forty of us lived, ate, and went to classes together. It’s completely different from the set up here at UP, or at most colleges. I went to a small high school, and that’s probably the best comparison I can make. I don’t mean that negatively, but more in the sense that because you are constantly around the same people you get to know them incredibly well. There was a fabulous community in Salzburg!
In terms of classes, most of them revolved around Austria and Europe in some way. You were required to take a German course and in addition to that there was Fine Arts, Music, Politics, Philosophy, and Theology.
Would you like to return to that country one day and spend time there again?
In a heartbeat! When I first showed up in tiny little Salzburg, Austria I thought “what have I gotten myself into?” I love cities and had somehow landed myself in a small little Austrian town, and yet I grew to love it. It’s such a huge part of my life now, and I would love to go back there again one day.
Did this change your view on traveling to foreign countries?
I don’t think so. I’ve always loved traveling, even though it’s hard. My mother and I travel as much as we can, and it’s a big part of who I am. I think this trip definitely did teach me how to be less nervous about traveling though. When you’re staying in hostels in a foreign country, where you may or may not be able to use English, and you’re really just making things up as you go along you learn to relax and just take things as they come. Explore and make mistakes, even if you’re struggling in the moment, you’ll look back on it fondly regardless.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Going to Salzburg was one of the most amazing, stressful, anxiety ridden, breathtaking, and fabulous experiences of my life. The friends I made, and things I got to see made all the struggles more than worth it.