Welcome back for the final installment in Adventure Awaits: Traveling the World with Alex and Ani! This week, Rachel concludes her journey abroad with a reflection on her trip including what she learned and her advice to anyone with an opportunity to travel the world. We hope her story inspired you to follow your dreams and live life to the fullest!
_____
It’s extremely difficult to leave behind a beautiful and unique city such as Barcelona. I had grown used to the quirkiness of the city and to calling it my home after several months of being away from the United States. I had fallen in love with everything ranging from the personality of the people who live there, the mesmerizing architecture, the beautiful sunny weather nearly a hundred percent of the time, and the vibrant culture, music, art, and nightlife. I loved the pace of life and the easygoing life style that I had adopted in Barcelona.
In the weeks leading up to my departure, there was plenty to do. I had spent a lot of time preparing for my finals and revisiting some of my favorite places in the city. In the school system in Spain, your grade is combined mostly of a final and midterm. While it was nice to barely have any homework while I was abroad, the studying for a final worth so much of your final grade was stressful.
I did a lot of small souvenir and gift shopping in my final days leading up to my return to the U.S. and squeezed in time to go see a few new places that I had yet to see. I experienced so many emotions during my last week in Barça. I was looking forward to going home to see my family and my best friends but was nervous about the possibility of feeling reverse culture shock. I was sad about leaving Europe because I felt as if I had only seen a small portion of the world and wanted to travel more. There was so much I was going to miss about Barcelona beginning with my host Mom and my new friends. Saying goodbye is never easy.
In my semester abroad, I truly experienced so much. How many people can say that they walked by La Sagrada Familia every day to take the metro to class? I can now say that I have! I learned so much about myself and grew as a person from being abroad. I am no longer nervous about throwing myself into the unknown like I had been before I left for Spain. If I could move to another country for a semester without knowing a single person or knowing enough of the language, then there wasn’t much else stopping me. I became confident, okay with being on my own and could take care of myself. I also became more responsible and a better advocate for myself.
I broadened my horizons and wasn’t afraid to go to new places. I learned so much, met new friends from all over the world, and pushed myself to succeed in my classes and in learning Spanish. I put myself out there. I reconnected with old friends as our paths crossed while traveling. I learned the importance of being able to cherish a great conversation, sharing stories, and caught up with the friends who I hadn’t seen for a long time. During my semester abroad, I grew up. I learned how to travel on my own and overcame several challenges.
I forced myself to be open to these new experiences. I changed but I remained the same. I didn’t forget where I came from but I embraced the new cultures and the experiences that came my way. I got wonderfully lost on my own several times only to find a new adventure. I fell in love with being spontaneous and not planning everything.
This was the semester where I danced out in the streets of Barcelona with my host Mom under the illuminated Sagrada Familia for a block party one night, where colored powder sprinkled down around me and all of my friends during the Barcelona Holi Festival, and where I stayed out until 5 AM dancing in discotecas and embracing Spanish customs. It’s the semester where I learned how to properly order tapas and drink sangria as I sat outside in a cafés talking with friends for hours.
It was the semester where I spent a weekend walking through Switzerland where the Swiss Alps put everything into perspective for me as I was captivated by their beauty. I realized how truly tiny humans are in the world and how big and beautiful nature is. I tried famous Port Wine in the Port Houses in Porto while walking the hilly streets of the city that was nestled into the hillside in Portugal. I learned how to drink and pour my own pint of Guinness correctly in the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. I went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc De Triomphe on the same day with my family, took a selfie with Mona Lisa, and dined on macaroons in a local French Café in Paris.
This semester I met up with friends and saw parts of the UK as we drank white wine at art exhibit galleries and dined on fish and chips in Leeds. We explored castles and walked through old churches in Edinburgh and went down the cobblestone street of the Royal Mile. It was a semester that I will never forget. I made wonderful memories and met beautiful people. I hoped that when I said goodbye to Barcelona that I could return one day soon. I’m not sure when exactly, but I’ll be back again!
I will always embrace chances to travel and see new places. I realize how lucky and blessed I am to have had the opportunity to travel abroad. I am so thankful and hope that I will be able to travel even more one day. I urge those who get the opportunity to study abroad to go. You never know if the opportunity will come again, so I encourage you to go the first time.
One of the beautiful things about the world that we live in is that you never know what will happen. Adventure is always waiting around the corner. It is up to you to grasp onto these adventures and write your own story.
Until the next adventure,
- Rachel Murphy
