Well, my study abroad journey has finally come to an end…and WOW am I sad. But also like, WOW was it amazing! Something had to be pretty great for me to now miss it so much, right? It's like they say, everything good must end.

What better way to tie up my experience with one last blog post? And in this one, I want to focus on reflecting on my time abroad and more specifically, the culture shock that came with it! And then even the reverse culture shock that I've experienced since being back in the U.S! 

So here goes nothing:

Dear Nicole,

As the plane left the ground from Heathrow headed across the Atlantic, I cried. Of course, I was incredibly sad that my study abroad adventure had come to an end, but my tears were much more complex than that. In fact, since my last day in London, processing the last three and a half months of my life has been a fascinatingly complicated process.

The differences between Europe, in my case Amsterdam, and the United States are immensely vast. Life is different, people are different, places are different, culture is different, food is different. The U.S. that I entered two and half years ago compared to the U.S. that I entered after living in Amsterdam for four months feels different. When you think about how quickly you can accustom yourself to a new place and new culture is quite crazy.

A few days before I left for Nantes, France for the IES Abroad Nantes French Language Immersion and Area Studies program, I made a video discussing how I had been preparing.

Being back in South Carolina after traveling around France for a semester has been…interesting. I don’t have another adjective to really describe it, honestly. It hasn’t been horrible, but it hasn’t been the most fun, either. I guess I’ll start by letting you know that I was scheduled to be in Europe until the 26th of December with my dad, traveling around France and Switzerland and meeting up with some of the friends I made abroad and their families. However, that got cancelled due to the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases.

I’ve been wanting to write a blog post like this since before I got to Nantes, because it’s one of the things that helped me most when I was deciding if I wanted to go abroad, and if I did go, to where. I think life in a foreign country and city sounds so bizarre and intimidating, like you’ll never nail down a routine or a sense of comfort. Hopefully, this blog will help you realize you can find routine, comfort, and stability wherever you go.

In just a few hours, I’m headed off to start my study abroad journey in Dublin, Ireland, filled with a mix of excitement and anxiety. It goes without saying that Covid-19 has brought many different challenges to the process of study abroad as well as life in general. However, I am heading into these next few months optimistic that I will be able to make the most out of my experience. Back in March of 2020, my sister was studying abroad in Valencia, Spain and my roommate and I decided to go visit her over our spring break.