A Little Reflection

Ciao!

I am so sorry I have not written for a few months.  I have been so busy going to "real" school and taking classes that are no longer pass/fail.  I cannot believe how quickly this semester has flown by and that I am only 2 finals away (ok so 1 is a take home exam but you get the point) from being a Senior in college.  I wanted to write a post because I have been feeling quite homesick for Perugia these past few days.  My best friend Sam just returned from Perugia last weekend and it was so wonderful to see her again this evening.  We talked about Perugia and hearing her say how sad she was to leave reminded me of myself just a few months ago.  I still think about Perugia everyday.  I think about gelato, the Italian lifestyle, and of course ciao ciao panino's (so yummy!!).  I have also thought a lot about Perugia because just 1 year ago I was getting ready to leave on the trip of a lifetime.

I was ending my Sophomore year of college and I was so ready to leave for Italy.  As next year's Fall students get ready to leave for Perugia I know it's going to be hard for me.  I'm going to look back at my blog and find it hard to believe that was 1 year ago.

At the beginning of this semester I was told that reflecting on your study abroad experience was a good way to channel your sadness about being back in the US.  One night in February I became very homesick for my Italian life that I did just that and I read that story again today.  It helped me realize how much I have learned in Italy and I would like to share my story with you now.  I am also hoping to make this into a digital story next semester with the help of the LVC study abroad director.  But for now here is my story....

Coming Home

            You know when you’re on a plane and you look out the window and see the white fluffy clouds?  The clouds seem within reach; you can almost reach out and touch them, you swear you could sit on them if you had the chance.  I saw those white fluffy clouds on September 2, 2010 while I was flying to Italy.  I had decided to study abroad in Perugia because it was something I had always wanted to do.  I was nervous and excited the day I left the Harrisburg airport.  And I’ll admit I even cried as I hugged my parents and grandparents one last time before I went through security. 

            As I landed in Italy I immediately wanted to go home, I had never been so homesick in my entire life.  But I pushed through the tears and sadness and let myself soak in the Italian lifestyle.  Within weeks I had found my second home in Perugia.  I was eating paninos, drinking cappuccinos, and walking the steep hills of Perugia with a smile on my face.  I learned to adapt to a place almost 5,000 miles away from my home in Pennsylvania and I was no longer sad about my choice to live in Italy.

            The months flew by and the final weeks of my stay came upon me so quickly.  I realized I would never walk the hill to my apartment on Via Dell’Aquila again or eat a gelato from Agosto Perugina.  On December 17, 2010 I said goodbye to my friends at the Rome airport much the same way I said goodbye to my parents only 4 months before.  I saw those touchable white clouds again on the plane but this time I was not nervous or excited, I was sad and crying to be leaving Perugia, the place where I learned who I was. 

            I landed in Washington D.C. and saw a flight boarding for Rome only a few gates away.  I started crying as I realized I was not able to get on that flight and experience what those passengers were feeling.  I was not filled with joy as I reached the Harrisburg airport but filled with homesickness for a place I had only been for 4 months.

            I cried on the car ride back to my house as I longed to be back in that place I called home.  I cried with my Perugia roommates on the phone and through many hand written letters.  It's taking me a long time but I now know that Perugia has changed me for good.  I am not the same person I was back on September 2^nd.  I am no longer that scared or nervous girl who wanted to leave Italy as soon as she landed.  I am excited in knowing that one day I will board a plane to a new destination.  I will experience that giddiness as I try to reach out and grasp those clouds that once guided me to an experience I will never forget.

This story has helped me channel everything I have felt since coming home from Perugia.  I still hope to go back there someday but for now this is enough.  I should probably get back to doing my take home exam for psychopharmacology.  I hope everyone has a wonderful summer and I hope to update much more during my time off of school!


Morgan :)

Smile Because It Happened

Ciao!

I have been home for over a month now and I have been at school for a week and a half so I thought it was only necessary that I reflect on my time in Perugia in a blog post.  Since I have been back at school it has been pretty difficult.  I thought once I returned to LVC that I would just fall right back into my normal self and enjoy school and love being around my friends again.  Don't get me wrong I absolutely love being back with my friends and I am enjoying most of my classes this semester.  But it just isn't the same.  I think about Perugia and my friends a lot and every once in awhile my mind travels back to Perugia and it makes me miss everything about the Italian life so much more.  But I know that just as I got acclimated to living in Perugia all the way back in September I will get back to life again in America.

Re-entry is one of the hardest things I have been through and I honestly didn't think it would hit me this hard.  My friends at school don't really understand what I did last semester.  They don't get the little jokes that I find hilarious or the little tidbits I throw out about Italy or my Perugia roommates.  But then I realized that there are people at LVC who do understand, my friends who went to Perugia with me!  And when we run into each other on campus it's amazing!  It's like I'm in Perugia all over again.  We talk about Italy and about the time we went on that trip and it's little things like that that are really helping me overcome my homesickness for Italy.

Another thing that is helping me get through the tough times is realizing all that I accomplished while living in Italy.  I have changed a lot as a person because of this experience and when I think about all of the challenges I overcame while in Perugia I can't believe it.  For instance, I used to be sad about going back to school and leaving my family.  I now know that I can leave my family for an extended period of time and be an independent individual.  I learned that I can go into new places not knowing anything and learn to adapt myself.  And because of my time spent abroad, I have now thought about a new career path to take.  I am looking at becoming a study abroad adviser for a college or university because honestly I don't think I will be happy in a job where I cannot travel.  I want to help students who are going through re-entry or who want to study abroad.  I want to be the one who convinces them to go to Italy or Australia or New Zealand because of how much studying abroad has changed me.

I have also been thinking about what Italy has given me.  Italy gave me some amazing new friends who have forever changed me as a person.  Friends from all over the United States who I will never forget.  These new friends are so special to me and we have so many memories together that are going to last me a lifetime.  And I thank Italy so much for giving me these great people who have really become a second family to me.  I miss them all so much but I know I am going to see them all again.  And some of them are even coming to visit me at school in one month for my birthday!  I think they are giving me the best birthday presents in the world by doing this!

Re-entry is hard but reliving my memories and sharing my stories is a way to get through it all.  I want to thank the LVC study abroad staff for convincing me to study abroad because it really has been the best decision of my life.  And if I could give any college student the best piece of advice it would be to study abroad because I learned so much more than I could ever learn from sitting in a classroom two or three times a week.  So college students, have the experience because it's going to change your life..for good.

Before I go I would like to share some pictures I have edited these past few days.  I am really into taking old pictures and editing them and my Perugia pictures are a great way to do this.  So enjoy some of the pictures I have edited....

 

And here it is..a new "heaven must feel like this" collage!

I hope everyone has an amazing week and enjoy the snowstorm that is currently hitting us here on the East Coast.  This will not be my last post so check back every once in awhile for more =)

And I leave you now with a quote that I re-discovered the other day that really describes the way I feel about my Italian experience.

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" - Dr. Seuss

Morgan =)