Everything has been going by so fast. However, looking back, such a short time has passed but it has been filled with so many emotions and feelings that it feels like it’s been a decade. I remember last time I wrote a post I did not feel my best. I felt like I had been missing home too much and that was hindering my experience abroad. My friends seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly and I felt like I was the odd one out. However, as I started getting past my social anxiety and becoming closer to others, I realized rarely things are as they seem. At that moment, being able to open up to people who were going through the same things and actually talking about it made me feel much more at ease.
This past week has been essential to me not only in making these friendships and connections concrete but also in overcoming my “down” phase in studying abroad. It is our fall break (which was much needed after a stressful midterm week) and I decided to tag along some friends’ trip last minute. My worries hadn’t let me plan a trip beforehand and just one week before our week-long vacation I asked them if I could join and they were so happy I asked, which felt amazing: I was finally starting to feel like I belonged. Thus, it was decided that I would join them in going to Barcelona, Vienna and then Budapest. Places I really wanted to visit but hadn’t found company until this point. I bought my tickets and reserved my hostels and one week later here I am, writing this post in the bus from Vienna to Budapest. And I feel the happiest I have felt since I got here.
This fall break trip has been perfectly balanced. We are a group of 7 and even though we are all very different, communication is working great (which can be a problem while traveling in groups sometimes). In Barcelona, we met up with other 8 friends from IAU and we all stayed at the same hostel. During the day, we would explore the city and its beautiful monuments and beaches. It was very interesting to see the protests (which were luckily safe) and understand more about the cause. At night, we loved to go out in the city and explore the nightlife, which turned out to be amazing. We didn’t sleep much, but it’s also very hard to fall asleep when you know there is so much out there waiting to be seen and explored.
Going to Vienna afterwards was a perfect combination. While Barcelona has a very active nightlife which we definitely enjoyed, Vienna is a bit more calm and reserved. I had been to Barcelona before, but not Vienna, which got me even more excited to see brand new things. I had also talked to a Rollins student that’s from Vienna who just graduated and he gave me great tips and offered to meet up and explore the city with me, which I was super happy about. Not only would I get a view of the city from a local’s perspective, I would also be able to see a familiar face which is always very comforting. The first day, I explored Vienna with my IAU friends, and I have to say it was love at first sight. It is nothing less than wonderful. From the monuments, to the people, to the food. The cold weather gave the air a magical feeling which I loved; the people were patient with my German, which I really wanted to put into practice; the cafés were insanely beautiful and I wandered through the streets thinking of the multiple figures who could have walked through those same cobblestones, from Mozart to Beethoven, to Trotsky and Freud.
Today I got to meet up with my friend from Rollins and we shared amazing Schnitzel and pastries while catching up on all the time that has gone by since we saw each other. It has not actually been that long but all the experiences I have lived these past weeks and his post-graduate experience provided us enough conversation to last for a whole day. I have been so grateful for these past few days and the opportunities I have been given. I am looking at my study abroad experience in a different light than I had when I was feeling homesick and down. It’s funny how much we can change in such a short period of time and how all decisions we take lead us to where we are now. In my case, on my way to Budapest with a warm and calm heart and a big smile on my face, excited to see what the last part of the trip will offer.