The semester honestly felt like a dream. Part of me feels like I never left home, and the other part says that the semester could not end soon enough. I really struggled the entire first five days, but it was consistently better for me after that. I never felt low again to the extreme I did on days three and four, only a bit of homesickness.
I am happy to be home, but I miss certain aspects of being in Italy and here are a few tips I will give:
1. Interact with native speakers of the culture! I was so apprehensive going into the semester about my ability to speak Italian, but it gets so much easier, and the Italy Live professor is phenomenal. I reached the point where Spanish felt so much more foreign, even though I had studied it for three years in high school. Generally, I found that Italian people are very friendly!
2. I regret not traveling with more people on the weekends. Every weekend I traveled with my best friend in the program, besides when I had family visit, but I think it would have been beneficial to expand my social sphere at CIMBA. I got along with everybody during the week, of course, but I know for me at least, I was much more myself when I had the flexibility to do what I wanted while away from campus and it might have been similar for others as well.
3. A tip I learned from experience: DO NOT put your credit cards/identification in your phone case, make sure they are separated because if you get your phone stolen or lost, that means you lose a way to contact your family/friends, to pay, and to prove who you are.
4. Make sure you research what type of outlet is used in each of the countries you travel to – do not be the person who asks everybody to use their charger, plus it just saves you a headache down the road!
5. Call home a couple times a week – your parents/friends want to hear from you! Even though you cannot physically be in the same space as somebody from home, we have the benefit of living in a time where video calling exists – take advantage of it!
6. When things get tough – stay out of your room! We coined the study room on the dorm floor the “War Room”, which doubled as a study space and a social one away from classes. This is a super convenient way to hang out with your CIMBA friends and sit next to somebody new (also super useful for planning out travel with bigger groups).
7. Don’t be tempted to see as many places as possible, but make sure the time you spend in each place is quality time. Yes, see the monuments and the popular things, but trust your intuition and see where it takes you!
8. Do your laundry and withdraw your euros BEFORE the same day you leave for travel! I probably did this five times, and I would literally sprint from class to retrieve my laundry, run past the Tabacchi to get euros, and then pack my suitcase within like fifteen minutes. Super stressful (but also a really handy workout)! However, if you are traveling outside of the eurozone, just get cash in that currency at the airport (or train station) but make sure to choose the ‘in local currency’ option rather than the dollar conversion to avoid more fines.
9. Make sure you do what you want to do outside of class, not just go with the majority group. If you feel like you need to study, study. Otherwise, you will resent your friends for making you spend your limited time in Italy in a way that does not align with your goals or interests.
10. Classes will be harder than you expect them to be! I have heard from countless people that studying abroad was the easiest semester academically of all of college. I disagree. Prepare to feel like you are in class all day during the week and a moderate amount of work for each course outside of class. It is doable, but not a piece of cake.