It was 2 p.m. on a random Wednesday in October, and I was walking along the beach in Scotland, on the Isle of Arran to be exact. With sand beneath my feet, mountains covered in haze on one side and the beach on the other, I was having a hard time grasping that this was reality, and I was living this epic scene. Welcome to Fall European Studies.
There is a running joke between several of my classmates and I that whenever we reach a place particularly exciting we stop and say, “Guys, can we just stop and take a moment to appreciate the fact that we are at [insert place].” By now, it has become cliché and we roll our eyes at it, but in actuality, we do need to appreciate the fact that we are hiking in the Alps, eating under the Eiffel tower, or kissing the Blarney stone. It’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
Studying abroad is radically different from taking a week-long vacation to the city. Yes, there is the “studying” aspect that is a bit inconvenient, but coming to a country for a full semester means you get to live here, not just be another tourist. A week into visiting a city and you’re still trying to navigate the public transportation system. Six weeks into a new city, however, and you know multiple ways to walk to get your favorite gelato, where to get the best kasekrainer and what back-street restaurant actually has Dr. Pepper.
Not everything is as picturesque as floating on a gondola in Venice, however. Things have been known to go wrong. You might spend more time on trains and in train stations than in the actual town. Then again, the things you remember most will probably be that one time in the Czech Republic when you had to try to find your hostel walking around at 1 a.m. without a map (may or may not be a factual occurrence).
Every Oklahoma Christian student has heard, “You should study abroad!” such an exorbitant amount of times that it has become mundane. But let’s face it: what other opportunity are you going to have where you can Skype your friends and tell them you jumped off a cliff in Switzerland while they sat in an Elements of Math class?
Hallie Milner is a junior at Oklahoma Christian University.
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