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It’s hard to believe I have already been home for a full week, and yet it feels like I didn’t even leave! My flight home was great, direct from Rome to Boston with Ella in the seat next to me, then took the bus home to Portland. Besides my suitcase handle breaking once we landed and having to stack our suitcases together to wheel through passport control, everything went perfectly and I got to reunite with my whole family and puppy that afternoon.
As someone who runs on the indecisive side, choosing a study abroad location was a bit difficult. There are so many wonderful places to go and so many different ways I could picture the semester going. I was pretty confident that I wanted to go to Italy, but even within Italy there are so many places to choose from. Syracuse University in Florence filled up almost immediately, so that was a decision I didn’t have to make. Between Rome, Milan, and Siena, I ruled out Milan because I wanted to be a little more southern.
After studying abroad for any amount of time, I think every student will say that they feel like they’ve come back somewhat different. And with personal change comes changes to the relationships in your life, which can be scary knowing that you’ll have to jump right back in.
My last week in Vienna has been incredibly overwhelming. Three of my five classes not only asked me to write a final paper, but also to take a final test. I’ve been trying to plan stuff to do with my family while they’re here. Trying to figure out when I’m seeing the rest of my family when I get home. I have a new role on the St. Thomas USG Executive Board that I’m trying to settle in to. I have to make plans to move into my housing for the next year when I get back to the United States. I had to pack up my life here in Vienna too.
I read a IES Abroad blog from last year who recommended bringing a microfiber towel and I’m so glad I did. They’re lightweight, dry fast, and absorb water so much better than normal towels. A few other people on my trip also brought them, but the ones that didn’t searched to find them here but everything’s more expensive in the Galapagos so definitely bring a good towel
In the last few weeks of the semester, I took my favorite class of the whole program with the coolest teacher. Our class was about research techniques but basically just ended up being a shark research class which I was very happy with. After our first week of classes we got to leave for a weekend trip to Santa Cruz for more diving. On the boat over I saw over a hundred dolphins and a few turtles.
After finishing our third class of the semester we finally had a break from school! Although it feels like time’s flying and I’m more than halfway done with the semester, I was so excited to visit the other islands with IES Abroad and my classmates! We left on Saturday morning for Floreana island where only around 150 people live. Our group dropped off our things at a restaurant and loaded the open air chiva busses to visit our next destination, a Tortoise Sanctuary in the highlands where we walked beautiful wooded paths and saw many giant tortoises.