I think that I have grown tremendously throughout my time abroad. While enriching my international business perspective through class projects and an internship, I have also had a chance to enhance my cultural understanding through my Exploring the City class and my travels. I am excited for this growth in my perspective, as I think it will help me in my future decision making and understanding.
Being in a new country and learning how to best explore it has proven to be a learning experience in itself. Deciding which events to take part in, how to best manage my time and money, and how to choose which places to see has been stressful at times. Coming here, I knew that I wanted to take advantage of every opportunity while not falling behind on the many responsibilities that I have. At this point in the program, I am very thankful for the many experiences that I did choose, but if I could go back, I would try to be less afraid of straying from University of Pittsburgh classmates at the beginning. Despite this, I am very thankful to have grown so close to my peers through this process, so in this sense, it is hard to desire changing anything.
I think I have also grown to learn what I prioritize experiencing in new places. Having a cultural experience is much more important to me than just seeing the main sites in a location. Moments such as playing the violin with a local in a Barcelona train station, biking around the Tuscan countryside with my boss, and getting dinner with other University of Florence students were all memories that helped give me so much insight into different cultures and perspectives that I will take with me forever. While the many architectural sites provide answers to the history of a place, I think having a personal connection to a place is so impactful. I love thinking back to all of the memories from all of the places I’ve visited. It has been an absolutely priceless experience.
The most surprising part of the experience was how many American study abroad students would be here. It is a bit overwhelming for the city, and we discussed this topic extensively in my Exploring the City class. This made finding cultural experiences, like the ones that I mentioned above, much harder to find in the main city that I was trying to explore. This was something that I did not know before coming here, and if anything, it made those experiences that I did find much more valuable.