Studying abroad is something that I always looked forward to doing when thinking about
college. Now being in Italy studying abroad and making 22 new friends, traveling around the
country with one another, seeing historical landmarks, and getting to all work together in both
classes is something that I will never take for granted and will cherish for years to come. While
there were moments where we as a group butted heads I could not have asked for a better group
of people to spend the past month with and am grateful for the relationships I have formed with
each and every person.

While there are so many parts of this trip that I enjoyed, something I most enjoyed was
climbing the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Seeing the historical tower was something I was super
excited to see coming into the trip, and seeing it in person was such a surreal moment. When I
found out that we were clinging to the top (something I didn’t know was an option) I could not
contain my excitement, however I was confused as to how one is supposed to climb the tower
because of just how much it leans. When going into the tower and starting the climb I instantly
knew the climb would be no easy feat as we would be quite literally walking up a leaning
staircase. As the tower leans you have to shift your body’s weight.

There isn’t really much that bothered me the most while I have been abroad, however I
think one thing would be having to quickly understand so many different personalities and how
people react to different situations differently. On our final free weekend there were many
obstacles we as a group had to overcome and when something went wrong some people would
be annoyed with the situation which would translate into in a way pushing that annoyance on the
situation onto other people. In situations like this I knew that snapping back at someone who
wasn’t annoyed with me but the situation would only make the situation worse so I would let
them feel their feelings and once we crossed the obstacle they would apologize for being snappy and said they weren’t mad at us but the situation and obstacle at hand— then from there
everything was fine and we were able to move past it.

Something I miss most about home would probably be my close friends who I don’t see
often. My two closest friends back home are both students at Texas Tech University, so during
breaks from school we always try to make the most of our time together before we all head back
to school. While I’m here, which I cannot complain at all about, I have missed seeing those two
friends who I now don’t see as often as I had before college. While I am extremely grateful for
this opportunity, I do still miss those friends back home.

Hands down my single greatest challenge is communicating with the Italians. Coming
into the program I knew this would be a challenge and wanted to be able to communicate with
the locals here, looked at common phrases to be able to have small conversations with locals,
however when getting here what you expect versus the reality of actually being here and the
culture shock was real— and trying to communicate with the locals who for the most part knew
a good amount of or at least enough english to have a simple conversation with them. One thing
though that was challenging when communicating with the Italians, even when speaking in
english us that some of the Italians that would speak to me in english seemed annoyed, whether it
was because of me—an American being here, or then having to talk to me in English (or maybe
both), but there were times I felt that they were annoyed when it come to conversing.

One thing that made me laugh out loud wasn’t necessarily an event, but more so a person.
Right off the bat when meeting her at the airport she struck up a conversation with me! She was
absolutely hilarious and cracking jokes while running on no sleep at the airport as she said that
she wasn’t able to sleep on the plane ride over— meanwhile she is fully making me laugh so
hard I’m crying. From there we pretty much spent every waking moment together, her never failing to make me laugh, but at the same time being someone that I could and would sit down
for hours with and have deep conversations about life with. There were many nights we would
stay up until 3 AM talking and laughing together which is something I’m gonna miss most when
returning home. This was something she and I actually had talked about last night to which she
said “What? It’s not like I’m dying. You’re still going to see me in Norman and I’ll make sure of
that,” to which I responded jokingly “No I’m gonna block you on every form of commutation
once I leave here,” and we both laughed together.

A personal insight that I now possess that I had not before studying abroad would be
staying calm in stressful situations while traveling. This past month I feel has truly tested each
and everyone of us individually. The best way I can explain being in a foreign country with 23
peers who do not speak the local language while trying to navigate this foreign society is like
being in a pressure cooker. It only takes so long for someone to blow like I had said before—
however, these stressful situations have shown me that when something goes wrong while
traveling there are a few different ways one can react. For me when something were to go wrong
I would try to problem solve while staying calm and trying to calm down others. An example
would be on our way back from the independent travel weekend at the end of the program we ran
into a few issues in the train ride back. To start, when getting on the train we as a group (except
for Luke and Rachel) decided that we would get onto the train and from there move to our
assigned seats in another cart. Being the “leader” at this point in time I hopped on as the rest
followed, and from there we hopped onto train cart five. The doors shut and the train began its
journey to Arezzo. The whole group needed to get to either cart seven or eight so we then would
begin to make our way down the aisle and towards the higher number carts. I pressed the open
button as I approached the door leading into the next cart, however I saw the number four on the train cart we were about to enter. From there we turned around and made our way in the other
direction. As the group approached the opposite side of the cart’s door and made our way into the
little common area that lies between each cart we saw a sign that said four. I stood there confused
as on the other side of cart five, on the doors of the cart that we were approaching on their entry
door had been a cart four sign. One of the group members had said that they saw a cart seven in
the direction in which we originally (which would have been nice to know beforehand) headed.
We turned around to head back in the direction that we believed was the correct way to our carts.
However there was one issue– there was now a group of people who were trying to get past us
on both sides. Not being able to get past either party, a few members of our group grew anxious.
I told the group that when we reached the next stop we would get off and run to our correct cart
to solve this issue. When the time came we all got off and headed towards our carts. Anna Grace
and I had been assigned seats next to each other and as we made our way to our seats as the train
departed the station we got a text from Luke and Rachel who had from the beginning gotten to
their correct seats. We received a text from them asking where we were and that they saw us get
off the train and run so they got off the train. Them not having been apart of the train cart debacle
and unaware that we all got off the train to get to our correct carts they saw us off the train
running and thought that something had gone wrong in which they too got off— however they
did not get back on and now we’re stuck at the train station while we were in the train in our
correct carts and seats en route for Arezzo. At this very moment as I write this sit here still
confused as to why there were number four signs on both interior train cart doors which
contributed to this debacle.

My greatest in-class insight would have to honestly be just how well all 23 of us worked
together. Knowing that this trip would consist of two group projects, one in either class while also living together I expected there to be a lot of head butting and unnecessary drama. While
there were times where not everyone saw eye to eye, overall I believe that all 23 of us worked
great together and I could not have asked for a better group of people to have gone through this
experience with! If I could give advice to myself before leaving the U.S., I would say, “Buckle
up, it’s gonna be a wild ride, but you’ll have the most incredible time with the best group of
people. Don’t forget to take time for yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Lean on your peers
when you need help or just someone to talk to. Don’t stress over the little things. View the small
bumps in the road as another part of the overall experience.”