April was the craziest, fun, busiest, most insane month of my LIFE! We had 2 weeks off for Easter break, although I gave myself a third week off too (I swear I’m here to study too and I do normally go to class). I traveled to 5 cities the first week. My family came to visit for the second week, where we did a road trip around Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg. And then I went to 4 more cities the week after. I spent a total of 7 nights in Brussels this entire month. April went something like this: Brussels - Prague - Vienna - Munich - Schwangau - Strasbourg - Brussels - Gent - Brugges - Delft - Lisse - Amsterdam - Königswinter - Bacharach - Luxembourg - Brussels - Bern - Interlaken - Brussels for lItErAlLy 12 hours - London - Edinburg - Brussels. (Stay tuned for all these blogs coming eventually.)
Honestly I can’t believe this is my life! I’ve been dreaming of studying abroad since I was 14 years old, when I first found out that studying abroad was a thing though my cousin who went to Thailand. Since then, I’ve always known I wanted to study abroad too, but in Europe. Fourteen years old. Now, 7 years later, I’m living the dream! Truly, I am. I’m constantly in awe of this world and how much there is still to see. I’m truly SO grateful that I have this opportunity to be living and studying and traveling in Europe for almost half a year.
But, that’s not to say that traveling is always glamorous. It’s so easy, especially on social media, to just post pretty pictures of all the new sights and adventures I’m going on. SO easy. But the reality is that I’ve been living out of my backpack for the past month. In 30 days, I’ve been to 18 cities, and taken countless planes, trains, and buses, and gone on a road trip - all usually leaving super early in the morning or super late at night. I’ve also missed a bus home and shown up to the wrong train station once. I slept on the floor of a train with my head against the trash can. In three nights, I spent one night sleeping on a train and another night sleeping on a bus.There were probably too many days in between where I didn’t shower. I slept in hostel rooms with anywhere from 3 to 12 people, usually with at least one snorer. That’s not to say I’m not grateful. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world! Getting to live and study and travel in Europe is a dream! But sometimes it’s exhausting and all I want is a home cooked meal and to sleep in a bed for more than 2 nights.
That said, I’ve learned a lot in just the past month. ALWAYS triple check what time your plane/bus/train is leaving at and ALWAYS triple check what station/airport they’re leaving at. Cash isn’t a bad thing. It is possible to live out of a backpack for a whole week. It is not, however, possible to go a whole week without showering before you smell bad. Wearing the same clothes a few days in a row isn’t the worst thing in the world. WHO you travel with plays a big role in how a trip goes, but you also have the choice in how you react to situations, your own attitude, and what you want to get out of the trip (it’s okay to be a little selfish and do things on your own). Traveling and sightseeing alone is actually pretty fun, but it does get lonely after a few days. Taking pictures is cool and all, but don’t forget to just soak in the moment of actually being there, away from the screen.
And, going back to being transparent and reflecting on my time here, even studying abroad in general hasn’t always been easy. Moving out for the first time is hard, but man it’s even harder when you’re in another continent across an OCEAN from everyone you know and everything you’re familiar with. Europe is similar enough to America....but America is still America and Europe is still Europe. The culture is different (no more 24-hour stores or ice in your drinks), the language is different (lol at how I thought there would be English translations everywhere I went), the school life is different (no school sports or clubs/activities or even a job makes for a lotttt of free time). Paying rent and making my own meals and budgeting and using public transportation has been an adjustment (but I also feel way more prepared for life after graduation than if I hadn’t had to do all this this semester) (really miss driving though). Meeting locals isn’t easy, even when attending a whole school filled with them - my school here splits up the Erasmus/exchange students from the ‘normal’ students for classes. There’s no school sports or activities; you go to school just for class. What a weird concept (haha kidding..kinda). And even meeting other exchange students from around the world has been a huge eye opener - both in learning about their culture and becoming more aware of American culture.
With all that said, I wouldn’t change this experience for anything. This entire semester - attending school, meeting new people, traveling, even the hard and homesick days - has equally been some of the most challenging and best times of my life. Just really really grateful to experience it all. I can’t believe I only have about 5 or 6 weeks left!! - here’s to a few more adventures and exams and exploring Brussels and meeting up with a few friends. I’m hoping it doesn’t fly by too fast.
