If the “honeymoon phase” of adaptation to a new environment is real, this is it. From the moment our group met the IES Staff met our group in the Barajas airport, I was absolutely thrilled to be in Spain. Even the airport coffee seemed like an exciting treat (and while novelty was definitely a factor here, my soy cappuccino really was better than just about anything I’ve found in US airports).
Internship experiences are often practical, pragmatic, and relevant to students’ personal and professional futures. Cultural intelligence is gained and honed in an actual Italian environment and interacting with adults in their offices is invaluable to students’ understanding of the real world. An international internship will look stellar on a résumé.
All of this remains true for my internship during my usual weekly work grind.
Two weeks of work have gone by, and not one day of work has been spent without one of three essentials of Italian daily living: gelato, panino, and caffé. After about six days of working at the office, I can tell that no Italian could possibly survive a day without these valuable food groups. While my time working has not been characterized by food or drink, observing small nuances and intricacies like this are helping me to understand the Italian work environment.
Flipping back through the pages of my memory to the first European chapter, the quantity of noteworthy images makes it appear that I have been here for years. So much has happened, the scenery has changed so many times and my heart has overflown with an inordinate amount of emotions in the relatively short amount of time that has passed. This semester has been composed of the material of dreams. I will be telling these stories to my grandchildren one day, and with the same breadth admonishing them of the importance of travel.
Participating in an internship abroad is a very proactive way to make a study abroad experience more fulfilled. It can be difficult in such a new environment to occupy your time in a way that’s useful and insightful while still being fun. In many cases, an internship is all of these things. I spent my fall semester in Rome working at a shop called LeArtigiane. Like anything else, the experience was not perfect and I certainly ran into some frustrations.
The 206 countries that cover the face of this Earth are different. This simple fact that I have both been told to expect and have learned firsthand through my travels across Europe seems obvious, but is nonetheless a fact that garners validation through experience. Ironically, it is these very differences that transform an oddly colored spot on the map into a conglomeration of people, ideas, cities, natural beauty, and everything else that defines our lands into homes with distinct personalities; a flavor or a trademark of their own.
It is finally time to leave! Tomorrow morning bright and early I will board my flight to Costa Rica for a new adventure. I am slightly apprehensive, but from past experiences abroad I know that once I get there it will be completely amazing. The past week has been quite a struggle in getting everything ready; I am chronic over-packer because I feel like I must be prepared for every situation. Yes, on past trips I have been the girl who carried emergency toilet paper in her bag – but friends traveling with me never complain!
Earlier this week I took a cooking class at the IES Center taught by an ISC (Italian Student Companion). When I signed up for the class I was under the impression that we would make our own sauce, boil the pasta, and then enjoy. But once the class began, I quickly realized that not only were we making our own sauce, but we were also making homemade pasta! My peers and I tried our best to shape our pasta to look like that of the ISC, but more often than not we failed quite miserably.
“With a leap of faith I feel a little stronger, wanna swing from a star in the big blue sky, don’t wanna watch it all go by– so I’m gonna fly…” — Sydney Forest, “I’m Gonna Fly”
When we all landed in Vienna, we got on buses and drove about three hours to a town called Mariazell. In Mariazell, we had a few information sessions, intro to German for us beginners, and a few fun activities.
On Friday, we went into the town center and did a tour of a medicinal schnapps factory and of the beautiful Mariazell Basilica. We awkwardly watched a funeral for a sec outside the church, but other than that it was really cool. The town was very pretty and there was a great view of the mountains all around us.