Study Abroad

Manure never smelt so good. A cheeseburger never tasted better. Driving never felt so revitalizing. After spending five months in England and Italy, America never was better. Landing in the Cedar Rapids airport, however, I was faced with a barrage of emotions.It is a new sensation to be back home after spending half a year in a different country. You are excited to be home but devastated that it is actually over. Half of you yearns to run to the comforts of American life while the other half secretly wishes the plane will take off and head the opposite direction.A sophomore student who has never truly left the country couldn’t possibly know what to expect before embarking on a study abroad journey to another continent. Before leaving for England, I knew nothing more about the United Kingdom than Manchester United and the Kooks. But when you take off for a half-year in a country you’ve never seen, expectations and preconceptions are simply barriers to true experience. I suppose in my case, ignorance was bliss.
Studying abroad isn’t just the awesome vacation it is portrayed to be. Even while in a foreign land, you still have to deal with the stresses you would back home: obnoxious roommates who keep you up all night, pointless classes with no apparent purpose or direction, and hipster kids with their cigarettes. But let’s be honest. Who the hell cares about that when you’re living in England for five months. It might not be only an awesome vacation, but that is surely the most important part.

It really is an eye-opening experience living with people from all over the world. My girlfriend and I lived with people from Hong Kong, Seattle, Portugal and the Czech Republic. These people taught me more than I have ever learned in a classroom especially a pointless U.K. classroom.
As I have told my parents, who funded the whole trip, I never learned so much about people and so little from books. Oddly enough, they weren’t upset with that. They must not have expected me to learn from books over there.The more I discovered how different people from across the world are, the more I learned how similar we are. While soccer divides countries in Europe, everyone enjoys the common ground of hating Italian soccer. Everyone around the world religiously loves coffee, despite the actual product being vastly different. And oddly enough, they love Lady Gaga even in the Czech Republic. Sad, I know.It seemed nearly every night was spent trying to understand each others’ cultures better. Immanuel from Portugal was astounded to discover we consider The Hills reality TV. He referred to it as a soap opera. He couldn’t understand how America thought those sorts of things were real.

With the drinking age being so low over there, everyone drinks. But hardly anyone is drunk. Leave that to the obnoxious American exchange students. Oddly enough, most people we spoke to in England and on our spring break in Italy didn’t hate America. Most hated George W. Bush, and most also realized that a large majority of our country did as well.It’s useless to go on about anything more I learned over there. There is plenty more of it, but it isn’t of any use to anyone. Who cares what I learned? What is important is that there is a true need for more students to take part in study abroad programs. It may be scary, it may be intimidating, and it may suck at times, but it is an opportunity you will never get again.

In my lifetime, prior to this experience, the only places I had been to outside of the Midwest were Canada, New York, Yellowstone, Washington, D.C. and Seattle. In the five months I studed abroad, I went to Manchester, London, Liverpool, Blackpool, Keswick, York, Cornwall, Canterbury, Windsor, the Cotswolds, Brighton, Rome, Florence, Venice, Bari, Naples, Capri, Sorrento, Sienna, Cortona, Orvieto, Civita, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Lake Como and Bellagio. Needless to say, it was life-changing.My advice to anyone who cares is this: don’t think about it. Do it. Sure, you might get behind on classes over here. You might miss home. You will probably go broke. Or even more in debt. But you will have a half-year vacation in amazing places. And better yet? You can pretend it’s academic and that you learned something for your tuition money. Scholarships for lounging on the Italian Riviera coast? You’d have to be crazy to pass that up.