What’s it like to study abroad?
Juniors Ruby Carr, Madeline Stivison and Anna Simms returned from a semester in Italy this past November and shared how this trip changed and informed them in many ways.
On their trip, the girls spent time immersing themselves in Italian culture as well as traveling within Europe.
“We were lucky enough to all get in at the time that we did. Especially because it was the Jubilee Year and there was the canonization of Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati that we went to,” Carr said. “It was awesome.”
The accessibility of the Catholic faith was a highlight of the trip.
“The amount of churches and sacraments that were going on constantly was so refreshing in comparison to the states. We met so many priests, so many monks, so many sisters,” Carr said.
She recalled the experience of walking into St. Mary Major and discovering there was Eucharistic adoration, two Masses taking place at side chapels and three priests actively hearing confessions.
Stivison also shared an experience of the accessibility of the sacraments and the Eucharist. On the last Sunday, they went to a small church with only a couple people there and after Mass, the priest came to talk to them.
Despite the language barrier, the priest held a small adoration for the group “It was really brief, but it was just such a beautiful way to end our last Sunday there” Stivison said.
Last fall’s student group consisted of 50 participants.
“We knew about four people that we went with and then who we ended up hanging out with completely changed. I think you go into abroad with specific expectations and then when you get there, they completely change” Carr said.
Stivison echoed a similar sentiment. “You all get really familiar with each other really fast. You’re all living together, all your classes are together, you’re going on trips together,” she said.
For students thinking about studying abroad, Carr emphasized the importance of entering the experience with an open mind.
“Be prepared for your expectations to change,” she said. “You’re going to meet so many people and see so much stuff and you’re gonna feel really overwhelmed, so don’t be stuck to what you thought that Italy was going to be like.”
All three girls found that the experience changed them in several ways, one of them being lifestyle.
“Prepare to come back wanting to live a much more simple lifestyle,” Simms said. Doing this she says is an “echoing the actual Italian lifestyle which is so much more simple than ours and it’s really beautiful. I think you just notice beauty in like the simple things in life.”
“Make sure that you bring that appreciation for architecture and history back here because even though we’re so new, there are still like really unique aspects of architectural beauty and historic beauty in America,” Simms said.
While there was time spent in the classroom, students in Florence have the opportunity to travel to many different countries and all throughout Italy, immersing themselves in the culture.
The girls stayed in Italy for most of the semester, traveling throughout the various regions of the country, but for fall break, all three traveled to the U.K..
Stivison took a solo trip to London, Paris and Lesieux and Simms took some time away from the others to visit Padua and Venice.
Something that surprised them, both on their trip to the U.K. and on returning to the U.S. was the shock of being surrounded by English speakers.
“It was so overstimulating to understand your own language,” Carr said.
The Italy semester ended in November so students could come back in time for Thanksgiving.
