Being abroad is about taking some of the most interesting and hands on courses, visiting and learning the history and culture behind the greatest monuments in the world, and really experiencing and appreciating a whole new society, leading you to have one of the greatest educational adventures of your life.
lolz. not really though.
Being abroad is...
- consuming more wine in a semester than water in a year.
- turning your bathroom into a rainforest because you have to do laundry in a sink for three months straight.
- hating everything about pounds. gaining pounds, british pounds, #pounds. knowing that pounds suck and will always suck.
- gauging how great a flight will be by if they serve free wine or not
- asking the critical "are there cobblestones" question before every trip to see if it's worth the risk to pack your stilettos or not.
- staring blankly at any flower or umbrella man who approaches you because you will never want, need, or buy a flower or umbrella from them...ever.
- being sucked into a restaurant solely because it has free wifi.
- being unable to stomach nutella anymore because you've eaten it drunk too many times.
- knowing that no matter what city you're in, you can always find solace in an irish pub.
- getting funny looks from italians because apparently running outside is a completely foreign concept.
- pushing your beds together at night so that six girls can watch a movie on one 18 inch laptop screen.
- listening to enough celine dion and phil collins to last a lifetime.
- laughing at the concept of jet lag because literally nothing is worse than touring around all day after a nine hour flight.
- being in more churches in three months than you will ever be in, in the next thirty years.
Being abroad is...
- rocks. lots of important rocks.
- over drafting your account because of the euro conversion rate
- never unpacking your suitcase because you're in a different city every thursday.
- realizing you have to pay for towels at hostels...and realizing how much you hate hostels.
- knowing that nothing in your life will ever compare to a nutella banana crepe from Paris, and being haunted by that knowledge on a regular basis.
- believing you are fluent in italian after three glasses of wine...or one glass of wine.
- changing the lyrics to thrift shop to "having 20 euro in my pocket"
- never having euro in your pocket
- spending the day wondering when the next abroad album is going to drop
- having register workers open your wine bottles for you when you don't have a wine opener on hand
- thoroughly enjoying the fact that open container laws are non existent
- smiling whenever someone mentions the pope like he's a great friend of yours because you were there when he was elected.
- scouring the world for a chipotle
Being abroad is...
- attempting to show your friends around your city and realizing after three months you still don't know where you are
- casually eating lunch on the pantheon and complaining about the american tourists because you're obviously not one of them.
- realizing that zara will never be the same.
- labeling cities by the food that you ate there.
- knowing how to fluently yell "basta!" and "figlio di punta!" by week two.
- coining the name "nightshift nightmare" by your favorite desk worker who works on the weekends.
- snapchatting cool abroad pictures and realizing that everyone must hate you for it.
- listening to your electronics sizzle because of your converters
- finding discrepancies in the Lizzie McGuire movie but still scouring the country for Paolo.
- being in a constant state of owing people money and having others owe you.
- reading everyone's drunk tweets when you're sober and getting up for an early class.
- creating a secret group online because you have too many embarrassing abroad pictures that can never see the light of day.
- forgetting you're underage at home.
- waking up to your room smelling like pizza on saturday mornings because of the V.I.P. pizza box in the corner.
- being stopped at security every time because apparently no one understands that a curling iron is not a weapon.
- jersey chasing international rugby players but still getting a better table than them at the club.
- being convinced that you study better when you've had a couple glasses of wine than without.
- singing more american karaoke than you ever have in your life.
- landing in a country late at night, immediately going out, and still waking up at 9 to tour a new city the next morning.
- hoarding Pascucci money because it's the only thing that feeds you when you've run out of euro.
- learning not to ever, ever look at your bank statement.
- power showering on a regular basis.
- being on the precipice at all moments of the day.
Being abroad is...
- realizing that coins are legitimate currency and loving them for it.
- having more scarves in your closet than actual clothes
- listening to the ryan air flight completed song and silently thanking the lord for making it safely
- ordering wine for the table because it's cheaper than water
- illegally downloading all movies and tv shows because the fact that Netflix doesn't exist is a scarring realization.
- forgetting what dollars look like.
- never knowing exactly what's going on with your friends at home no matter how hard you try
- strategically packing every outfit for a weekend so you can make it fit in a ryanair briefcase
- somehow ending up with more carnevale costumes, rave wear, spacesuits, and thrift shop items than actual souvenirs.
- seeing some of the most amazing sights and architecture on a run around the city than on an actual tour
- sharing every article of clothing with your roommates to make one suitcase last three months.
- spending more time trying to split up the check than actually eating
- getting dirty looks when you go out without tights on but doing it anyway and having no shame.
- knowing all promoters and bartenders by name to get the best deals on the weekends.
- being best friends with a man named Alfredo.
- getting your heel stuck in the cobblestones, leading to a Wedding Planner traffic-stopping moment
- going over your pit and peak of every day and realizing that most days are pretty damn peaky
- getting sent home from the Vatican because your skirt is too short.
- being woken up by the ghost that lives in your wall every morning (we'll miss you Julius)
- eating more gelato than you'd think is humanly possible...and still being unable to refuse the Fridge.
- collecting shot glasses from every country because it's the most stereotypical college collection you could acquire
- creating the most dysfunctional twerk team known to man.
- laughing when someone says your life is a joke, because honestly that's exactly what it is.
being abroad is having a truly messed up family dynamic with your five best friends and realizing you've spent, from the very first night together, ninety days at each other's sides. It's about drinking too much, studying too little, seeing more than you ever could've imagined, and falling in love with every country you set foot in. It's about listening to Forever Young and knowing you're on top of the world. It's meeting your friends for the first time in January and wondering how you're going to function without them come April. Being abroad is claiming a city for your own, and wondering how you're ever going to leave, and planning exactly when you're going to come back. It's listening to Bittersweet Symphony and having the intro describe your city. It's being an orphan, and loving every second of it.
The Definition of Abroad: the best ninety days of your life.
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