Within my program I have been developing and strengthening both my transferable soft and technical hard skills. Transferable, soft skills that I have strengthened include adaptability, cross cultural communication, independence, problem solving, time management, teamwork, leadership, etc. This experience has strengthened my confidence in being independent. Here, everyone is indifferent schedules, so often we will explore or do things on our own. Having these experiences has made me feel much more independent, as well as more confident in general.  These skills are all crucial while being abroad, but will also be very useful in my future life and career, whether abroad or not. Technical, hard skills I have strengthened include my language proficiency, public speaking and presentation skills, budgeting skills, etc. I am an Italian minor, and have spent a lot of time in Italy prior to this experience. However, this is my longest period of time here yet. This has allowed me to strengthen my Italian language skills immensely. I feel much more confident in my writing, speaking, and listening skills, both in the classroom as well as in my internship in Florence. In many of my classes here, presentations are a major part of the curriculum. This has allowed me to improve my public speaking and presentation skills, because presentations are occurring almost daily. My budgeting skills have also improved, because I need to budget what I am spending during my international experience. These technical skills will be carried with me throughout my life, as I continue to use, develop, and strengthen them. Cross cultural communication has not been extremely difficult for me during my experience. As stated before, I grew up visiting Italy, and grew up surrounded by the culture. This has allowed the culture shock to lessen, and for me to almost instantly feel that there were less communication barriers or miscommunication. However, because it is my longest period of time in Italy, or abroad in general, I find myself yearning for something that feels even more comfortable, that being American culture. While Italian culture feels familiar, it can sometimes be difficult to not have much American culture around. Having the opportunity to interact with locals, and get over some of the uncomfortability with it, I am allowed to feel that I am part of a community, especially because everyone I have interacted with here is very kind. Having these experiences has enhanced my cross cultural communication even more, making me a more culturally aware person.