There are so many accurate clichés I could use to express how enriching my study abroad experience was. Ladies and gentlemen, the travel brochures are right. Yes, it was a once in a lifetime experience. Yes, it was a semester I will never forget. Yes, I do feel like it has changed me as a person.

I thought that maybe this year I would be able to say new year new me and actually mean it, becoming one of those motivated people who keeps their new years resolutions for more than a day.

My name is Bo Shimmin. I am 21 years old and am a junior studying Vocal Performance at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. I live in Tucson, Arizona with my dad and sister and am currently soaking up as much sun as I can, before enduring the Italian winter... I am a virgo, a dog lover, I am addicted to spicy foods especially Hot Cheetos (which I heard are impossible to find in Europe...), I'm a huge fan of Lana Del Rey, I am half Native American/Half White, and I love travelling to new places.

[Transcribed from video] Hallo, ich heiẞ Naomi und ich komme aus New York. Ich studiere Mathematik und Informatik in Atlanta bei Emory aber nicht dieses Semester. Ich bin aufgeregt, weil ich nach Wien für ein Musikprogramm gehe! Jetzt spiele ich Klavier für euch.

At the beginning of my semester, I wrote 5 questions that I hoped I would be able to answer by the end of the semester. Naturally, nothing went as planned. The streets looked nothing like how I pictured them, and I could have never predicted the sheer uniqueness of Moroccan culture. 

How will communication with the host family go?

Today is my first day back at school in Indiana. I’ve been home for a few weeks now, and Italy seems like a dream. It’s hard to believe I lived in those places, and experienced all of those amazing things.

I’m having a hard time getting ready for this semester. It’s dropped below zero degrees Farenheit almost every single day here, and I hate the cold. It’s 51 degrees in Rome right now.

I have officially been home for over a week and I’m still not sure how I ended up here or how four months went by in what felt like maybe two weeks. I was welcomed back into the house by our 3 dogs and 4 cats, who made sure I received sufficient snuggles in the time between my arrival and that of my family two days later. It simultaneously feels like nothing has changed and so much has. To be honest, even when my friends get overly excited to see me, I feel underwhelmed because I don’t feel like I was gone for as long as I know I was.

And so here we are, at the end of the road of my long trip to New Zealand.  I have been back home for just over a month at this point, and I have to say re-entry was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I hadn’t been expecting how quickly I settled back into a routine at home, but I guess that’s due to the fact that four days after I got home I started an internship (best way to get over 18-hour jet lag!).