If the trend continues, more American college students will be studying abroad than ever before. Whether cultural immersion or legal access to wine is the motivation, most four-year universities are having increasingly robust study abroad programs.
Students can dream about living in almost any country, and there will likely be an opportunity for them through their school’s international center. If professors or faculty at UF want to start a program but don’t know how to go about the details, there are companies, like WorldStrides Educational Student Travel, whose purpose is to curate the perfect study abroad experience for students. By positioning students in trendy, city apartments and choosing excursions involving art and wine or free meals, these companies and the university work together to ensure students’ time abroad is blissful and issue free — a perfectly packaged vacation.
These programs, with chaperones and itineraries and dinners, can take the stress off a lot of traveling. But, they can also add a lot of pressure.
When I studied abroad in Rome last summer, I was expecting to enjoy every minute of the experience. After all, in the information session previous students reminisced about the market they walked to in the mornings to buy fruit. They raved about practicing Italian in coffee shops and exploring art museums daily. If they experienced anything troubling, they didn’t mention it. In fact, most people who gave me advice on study abroad before my trip only referenced their favorite parts — that time in the park, on the mountain, in the ocean. Yet, while most days were memorable because they were exciting and fun-filled, others were memorable because I spilled coffee all over the floor of a cafe and was met with glares.
Some did try to warn me that the experience wouldn’t necessarily be easy right away. After I paid the deposit and bought my plane ticket, there was another meeting, to prepare us for living alone in another country. The head of the program warned us about how normal it is to experience culture shock and homesickness. When she cheerfully advised us to pack peanut butter in our suitcases because it didn’t exist in Italy, I rolled my eyes — surely, I would be too busy eating delicate Nutella-filled pastries to think about what I was missing from America.
Yet, despite my stubbornness and my expectations, I realized there are a lot of things we don’t account for when imagining our ideal trip — or life.
There were days I woke up amazed I was where I was, and days where I woke up angry at the mosquitoes buzzing around my head. I made friends with people I wanted to eat cheese and drink wine with who were, at the same time, strangers I didn’t have any inside jokes with yet. When I traveled to Switzerland with two friends after a particularly homesick week, I felt like I was in a dream. We spent a night walking through Zurich and eating fondue. Then, while boarding a train back to town, I saw a Dunkin’ Donuts for the first time in a month. I started bawling when I realized it was closed.
Having had these polarizing experiences, here’s some advice to anyone currently studying abroad or anyone who wants to in the future:
- Embrace these moments — the flickers of annoyance or loneliness, or fear that locals will hate you — and accept they are part of the experience.
- Realize that everyone on the trip either is, has, or will feel the same way you are at some point. Some are just better at hiding it.
It’s the epitome of first world problems and privilege to complain about what was uncomfortable during an experience like this. If you are studying abroad right now or have in the past, it’s important to stay endlessly grateful for the opportunity. But, it’s also important to be honest about how you are feeling — with yourself, and with others.
You shouldn’t feel guilty about struggling to find a balance between the enjoyment and the discomfort, so long as you accept it all as part of the experience. Traveling is never the movie montage you imagine it will be, but it’s still amazing in spite of — or maybe even because of — the hard parts.