(no subject)
so it's wed. night and it's been feeling a lot later than it is, getting dark earlier, plus it's been rainy, cloudy weather.
i wish i could go into detail about the trip but it's not so fresh in memory and that's really the best time to do it. i did journal a lot for myself though throughout the trip.
it was really just so amazing. i feel like i learned sooooo much more just in that one week of seeing different countries.
it's quite a strange feeling going from one country to another!
once you get to another it's like..ok how do you say hello, thank you, etc. in their language, how does there metro system work, etc.
but i'm really proud of us because we've become really good at figuring all this stuff out. when we first left we didn't know how we were going to get to the airports, hotels, and trainstations we needed to make it to. by the end of each short stay, we at least knew how to get around the neighborhood where we were stayind and figured out all the buses and metros/metro passes.
had a little bit of trouble in london because we didn't know that we were travelling outside the zones that our passes covered. but the metro guy was really nice and understanding and we were charged a small fee.
it was so nice to be around english-speaking people! every time we were trying to figure something out we were just like...oh yeah! we can ASK someone!
they were so nice there.
in london and paris justine and i stayed in low-budget hotels, which weren't too bad.
in amsterdam, we met up with friends and stayed in a hostel. the hostels were quite an experience, let me tell you. haha. the one in amsterdam was pretty nice.
one big dorm room with bunk beds everywhere and one communal bathroom with seperate stalls for showers and toilets. it was kind of hard to manage all my things because they were all packed into this one backpack-10 days worth of stuff. we only wore one pair of jeans the whole trip, but we had to bring enough to stay warm. amsterdam was pretty cold! i never thought i could function in that cold of weather, yet i did, and so does everyone who lives there and rides their bike to work n everything!
the only problem was they had a million H&M's and the best flea markets and vintage stores! so by the end of amsterdam, i had an extra bag full of clothes. and my new boots :)
we went to the anne frank huis..or however they spell house. most everyone there spoke english so it was easy.
it was a little more difficult in paris because we don't know an inch of french!
and the people who knew no enligsh just kept talking to us in french, even if we didn't understand. justine kept making fun of me because i couldn't say "merci" (thank you) correctly. i kept pronouncing it "mer-cay-i" because in italian, grazei is pronounced sort of like grats-say-i. haha.
but by the time we left amsterdam and got to milan, i felt like i had forgotten a lot of the italian i had learned and it took me a while to get back into it.
soo the hostel in milan. wow.
haha. they had ONE bathroom for the entire hostel. justine, larissa, and i were in there and the floor was all soaked and it smelled like a park bathroom. the door of the shower fell off as well as the toilet seat just from touching them! that was a pretty funny moment though and larissa was hopping around on beth's one flipflop she had. it was a good laugh after everyone was tired and cranky.
we then went to sleep in our 4 beds that barely fit in the room and beth had to sleep on the floor.
the next day everyone went home earler and larissa and i spent the day in milan. milan is supposed to be the fashion-capital of the world, but it wasn't too exciting. the city part kind of just looked like l.a. but the area around the duomo was gorgeous.
it was really such a great trip though. we're so lucky we got to visit 3 of the most amazing cities and i would love to go back.
it was weird coming home. (and weird that we actually consider florence our home too!)
it's been rainy and cloudy and i really miss my parents and real home more than ever.
i talked to my teacher, who had a lot of experience and had studied a lot about culture shock and she said this is a strange period of studying abroad-almost like a limbo.
because we have been here so long now we feel like it's time to go home. and if we were staying longer than we would eventually get over this phase, but we would also start making ourselves comfortable by buying things like warm comforters or things that you would buy for your own home. but because we're leaving we still have to deal with inconveniences that we wouldn't have at home or would otherwise try to change here. it's really hard to explain. but we sort of just have to get through these 4 weeks and make the most of them. we'll probably do some more day trips around florence and such. but im at the point where i really just can't wait to get home.
then my teacher explained the second part-
when you get home and experience culture shock from your own culture! i know i will see things back home in a new way that i have never seen them before. and i will start to miss florence and long for my home in florence. she explained that it gets really hard then because no one understands, unless they have been through the same exact thing. i know i keep saying this, but it's really something i can't explain. all i can say is that from my experience so far, i highly encourage EVERYONE to do whatever they can to travel around and get out of the country. why would you not want to see what's out there? you really can't even conceive what life is like in other places unless you have lived it. i remember i had no idea what florence would be like AT ALL before i came. now i can't even describe what it's like.
one night in amsterdam we had coffee at this cute outdoor cafe under a tent with lights. we sat there and realized something big. larissa said, "this is the epitome of our whole studying abroad experience." and we all understood what she meant. though it was a great moment, she didn't mean that i was the best one. we had lots of other amazing moments and figured there were more to come. but there we were in amsterdam, after having experienced everything we have experienced so far, it was like the peak of this whole thing. we did it. after having lived through this whole thing, moving our lives and going about with them, you just move forward and don't really think about it. but we just stopped and realized that we were there. at the beginning of the trip we expected we would get there, although we didn't really know where "there" would be.
and i think because we have passed that point, that's why we're in this weird sort of "limbo" now. i also knew i would change as a person on this trip, but in that moment it actually hit me that i have changed. i never knew it until that second, when it just clicked. after that night i actually felt like a different person and was concious of the changes in myself. i'm still myself, but different. and its a great feeling to be able to be yourself and add and gain to that, in whatever country you are in.
especially after going through so many different cultures-your own identity is put under questioning. you are what you are because of the whole culture you grew up in and when that is stripped away, you really see what's there. it's quite refreshing, and i feel a new sort of confidence or something in myself.
at first i thought studying abroad like this was absolutely CRAZY and so did all my friends. but why is it crazy?
it doesn't feel that way anymore. now that i've done this, i feel like a can do a lot more than i thought i could.
all i can say is just DO IT. whatever it is, and don't make up excuses, because there really are none. if you want to learn the violin, then learn the violin. if you want to travel to europe then you'll find a way to do it. i've heard so many people who say that they wanted to study abroad and always thought it would be cool, but just didn't sign up in time or something. if the opportunity comes, then take it! before i was also hesitant, but now i just think, why would you not! i feel like now im also more willing to do things i never thought i would do. like play a sport of something. why not? ask yourself that question and if you don't have a reason not to, then you should. why not open yourself up to new things. you might find that its not your thing, but at least you now know that its just not your thing- and you learn that about yourself.
anyway, its a great feeling and i wanted to share it with everyone. i absolutely CANNOT WAIT to come home! i really really really can't wait. im terribly excited.
my parents sent us a box of halloween decorations! haha it was so cute, because we were sad we had to miss halloween at home. it's still not the same-it doesn't even feel like halloween is coming up because they don't celebrate it here..so really it's not. but OUR halloween is coming up. we've put up the decorations around the apartment and friday we're dressing up with our masks we got in venice and we're celebrating. it's things like these that will get us through these next 4 weeks. i have learned to appreciate sooooooo much more! like a bed. or a nice bathroom. especially after travelling for long periods of time when you only have one backpack and REALLY don't have luxuries!
"clean, crisp socks..i don't need luxuries like that!" (says high maintenance larissa) hahah.
i've been writing down funny quotes. today my crazy italian teacher said in her accent
"Listen, I am small and skinny , but I ah-do thee tae-bo!"
okay well we're going to our 5 euro church dinner tonight, so i've got to go! thanks for reading.
i wish i could go into detail about the trip but it's not so fresh in memory and that's really the best time to do it. i did journal a lot for myself though throughout the trip.
it was really just so amazing. i feel like i learned sooooo much more just in that one week of seeing different countries.
it's quite a strange feeling going from one country to another!
once you get to another it's like..ok how do you say hello, thank you, etc. in their language, how does there metro system work, etc.
but i'm really proud of us because we've become really good at figuring all this stuff out. when we first left we didn't know how we were going to get to the airports, hotels, and trainstations we needed to make it to. by the end of each short stay, we at least knew how to get around the neighborhood where we were stayind and figured out all the buses and metros/metro passes.
had a little bit of trouble in london because we didn't know that we were travelling outside the zones that our passes covered. but the metro guy was really nice and understanding and we were charged a small fee.
it was so nice to be around english-speaking people! every time we were trying to figure something out we were just like...oh yeah! we can ASK someone!
they were so nice there.
in london and paris justine and i stayed in low-budget hotels, which weren't too bad.
in amsterdam, we met up with friends and stayed in a hostel. the hostels were quite an experience, let me tell you. haha. the one in amsterdam was pretty nice.
one big dorm room with bunk beds everywhere and one communal bathroom with seperate stalls for showers and toilets. it was kind of hard to manage all my things because they were all packed into this one backpack-10 days worth of stuff. we only wore one pair of jeans the whole trip, but we had to bring enough to stay warm. amsterdam was pretty cold! i never thought i could function in that cold of weather, yet i did, and so does everyone who lives there and rides their bike to work n everything!
the only problem was they had a million H&M's and the best flea markets and vintage stores! so by the end of amsterdam, i had an extra bag full of clothes. and my new boots :)
we went to the anne frank huis..or however they spell house. most everyone there spoke english so it was easy.
it was a little more difficult in paris because we don't know an inch of french!
and the people who knew no enligsh just kept talking to us in french, even if we didn't understand. justine kept making fun of me because i couldn't say "merci" (thank you) correctly. i kept pronouncing it "mer-cay-i" because in italian, grazei is pronounced sort of like grats-say-i. haha.
but by the time we left amsterdam and got to milan, i felt like i had forgotten a lot of the italian i had learned and it took me a while to get back into it.
soo the hostel in milan. wow.
haha. they had ONE bathroom for the entire hostel. justine, larissa, and i were in there and the floor was all soaked and it smelled like a park bathroom. the door of the shower fell off as well as the toilet seat just from touching them! that was a pretty funny moment though and larissa was hopping around on beth's one flipflop she had. it was a good laugh after everyone was tired and cranky.
we then went to sleep in our 4 beds that barely fit in the room and beth had to sleep on the floor.
the next day everyone went home earler and larissa and i spent the day in milan. milan is supposed to be the fashion-capital of the world, but it wasn't too exciting. the city part kind of just looked like l.a. but the area around the duomo was gorgeous.
it was really such a great trip though. we're so lucky we got to visit 3 of the most amazing cities and i would love to go back.
it was weird coming home. (and weird that we actually consider florence our home too!)
it's been rainy and cloudy and i really miss my parents and real home more than ever.
i talked to my teacher, who had a lot of experience and had studied a lot about culture shock and she said this is a strange period of studying abroad-almost like a limbo.
because we have been here so long now we feel like it's time to go home. and if we were staying longer than we would eventually get over this phase, but we would also start making ourselves comfortable by buying things like warm comforters or things that you would buy for your own home. but because we're leaving we still have to deal with inconveniences that we wouldn't have at home or would otherwise try to change here. it's really hard to explain. but we sort of just have to get through these 4 weeks and make the most of them. we'll probably do some more day trips around florence and such. but im at the point where i really just can't wait to get home.
then my teacher explained the second part-
when you get home and experience culture shock from your own culture! i know i will see things back home in a new way that i have never seen them before. and i will start to miss florence and long for my home in florence. she explained that it gets really hard then because no one understands, unless they have been through the same exact thing. i know i keep saying this, but it's really something i can't explain. all i can say is that from my experience so far, i highly encourage EVERYONE to do whatever they can to travel around and get out of the country. why would you not want to see what's out there? you really can't even conceive what life is like in other places unless you have lived it. i remember i had no idea what florence would be like AT ALL before i came. now i can't even describe what it's like.
one night in amsterdam we had coffee at this cute outdoor cafe under a tent with lights. we sat there and realized something big. larissa said, "this is the epitome of our whole studying abroad experience." and we all understood what she meant. though it was a great moment, she didn't mean that i was the best one. we had lots of other amazing moments and figured there were more to come. but there we were in amsterdam, after having experienced everything we have experienced so far, it was like the peak of this whole thing. we did it. after having lived through this whole thing, moving our lives and going about with them, you just move forward and don't really think about it. but we just stopped and realized that we were there. at the beginning of the trip we expected we would get there, although we didn't really know where "there" would be.
and i think because we have passed that point, that's why we're in this weird sort of "limbo" now. i also knew i would change as a person on this trip, but in that moment it actually hit me that i have changed. i never knew it until that second, when it just clicked. after that night i actually felt like a different person and was concious of the changes in myself. i'm still myself, but different. and its a great feeling to be able to be yourself and add and gain to that, in whatever country you are in.
especially after going through so many different cultures-your own identity is put under questioning. you are what you are because of the whole culture you grew up in and when that is stripped away, you really see what's there. it's quite refreshing, and i feel a new sort of confidence or something in myself.
at first i thought studying abroad like this was absolutely CRAZY and so did all my friends. but why is it crazy?
it doesn't feel that way anymore. now that i've done this, i feel like a can do a lot more than i thought i could.
all i can say is just DO IT. whatever it is, and don't make up excuses, because there really are none. if you want to learn the violin, then learn the violin. if you want to travel to europe then you'll find a way to do it. i've heard so many people who say that they wanted to study abroad and always thought it would be cool, but just didn't sign up in time or something. if the opportunity comes, then take it! before i was also hesitant, but now i just think, why would you not! i feel like now im also more willing to do things i never thought i would do. like play a sport of something. why not? ask yourself that question and if you don't have a reason not to, then you should. why not open yourself up to new things. you might find that its not your thing, but at least you now know that its just not your thing- and you learn that about yourself.
anyway, its a great feeling and i wanted to share it with everyone. i absolutely CANNOT WAIT to come home! i really really really can't wait. im terribly excited.
my parents sent us a box of halloween decorations! haha it was so cute, because we were sad we had to miss halloween at home. it's still not the same-it doesn't even feel like halloween is coming up because they don't celebrate it here..so really it's not. but OUR halloween is coming up. we've put up the decorations around the apartment and friday we're dressing up with our masks we got in venice and we're celebrating. it's things like these that will get us through these next 4 weeks. i have learned to appreciate sooooooo much more! like a bed. or a nice bathroom. especially after travelling for long periods of time when you only have one backpack and REALLY don't have luxuries!
"clean, crisp socks..i don't need luxuries like that!" (says high maintenance larissa) hahah.
i've been writing down funny quotes. today my crazy italian teacher said in her accent
"Listen, I am small and skinny , but I ah-do thee tae-bo!"
okay well we're going to our 5 euro church dinner tonight, so i've got to go! thanks for reading.