When I feel homesickness, I feel it for Florence, Italy. I'm not Italian (not enough to count, anyway), but I was lucky enough to be a resident of bellissima Firenze in February, March, and April of 2011, my freshman year of college. One might think it's weird for me to long for a city I only experienced for a short three months of my 19-almost-20 years of life when I have plenty of good memories of my childhood home in California--I think it's because that's where my wanderlust was really indulged for the first time. The greatest part of living in Italy was being able to hop on a train at a moment's notice and head for the Cinque Terre, the Amalfi Coast for a weekend, Rome for a day, the South of France for spring break, or even just the beach or a little village for an afternoon. The freedom was intoxicating, and I felt absolutely no regret coming home with a drained bank account.
My university offers study abroad programs in plenty of countries but the application process here is a bit more difficult (my previous abroad experience was through my community college before I transferred--more on community colleges later!). Since I don't have a real mastery of any language but English, most of my options were ruled out due to universities taught in mother tongues. I was stuck between Ireland and England; there were opportunities in Australia but I just miss Europe too darn much. Originally I wanted to go to Ireland, where the University of Limerick is situated directly on the Shannon river and it's absolutely gorgeous, but I ended up changing my mind and deciding on York St. John University in York, England for spring of 2013. I did my paperwork, got accepted (yay!), and even have a job lined up for the summer so I have a few bucks to throw at the train stations and hostels once I get there.
After one initial study abroad experience, even with its fair share of downs with the ups, I can confidently assure anybody with even the slightest inkling of a desire to study abroad: DO IT! I learned so much about myself and the world around me from just a few short months in a different country, and I fell in love with life all over again. I had a lot of firsts--drinks, bars, clubs, trains, chocolate rum, roommates, real espresso, bidet knowledge, bronchitis in a foreign country--that pushed me out of that little bubble of comfort zone I had taught myself to push and expand. Yes, you will become broke, and yes, you will feel totally overwhelmed at times, and in your brokeness and your overwhelmedness you will meet the people that change your view of life permanently. The old man sitting across from you on the train will laugh at your silly antics when you lose ferociously to your travel buddy playing gin rummy, and he will buy you a Coke in thanks, with a smile, and you will learn one more phrase in the universal language of travel that sitting in a classroom can never teach you. The amorous French couple entangled a few seats behind you is, in fact, making everybody else uncomfortable too, and the less hormone-stricken French couple sitting across from you will roll their eyes with you, and you will understand a camaraderie not taught in an International Relations class.
Basically, you learn how to see the world around you with different lenses. That is the invaluable gift of study abroad, and nobody should have to miss out. I think the world would be a more tolerant place if we could see other cultures from outside perspectives, and I'm all for more tolerance.
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