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Optimistic. This would be the word I would have to give if I was asked to sum up my cultural experiences while I was studying abroad this summer. Being in Italy was an amazing adventure full sights, smells, and tastes that I would have never otherwise experienced along with some great people that I would not have otherwise met. However, while these places were beautiful and memorable, the physical part of my abroad experience is not the only one that I will remember. To me, one of the most impactful aspects of my time abroad was the consistent level of ignorance I was in, despite all of my preparations. Being in a country I had never visited that spoke a language I did not speak meant that I was constantly confronted with situations I did not know anything about and could not understand. Because of this, I found myself having to constantly rely on whomever was around me, including strangers at times, for advice or direction. This required me to be constantly optimistic, despite my nervousness and uncertainty, as I trusted other people, some that I had never met before, to guide me through a topic or situation that I was completely ignorant about.
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| A Roman Fish Shop in Ancient Ostia |
One of the best examples of these types of situations would to my quest to find salt at the grocery store. Now I know what everyone is thinking, how can grocery shopping be that hard, after all it's only salt and thousands of people shop every day. Honestly, that’s what I thought too until I found myself inside our neighborhood grocery store one Tuesday looking for this simple mineral and not being able to find it. Smaller with a more closed floor plan than American grocery store, Simply Market was the store the other five girls and I shopped at throughout our time in Rome because of its close proximity to our apartment. So, one of my classmates and I went there on a quick restocking trip on a Tuesday afternoon early on in our visit. After hesitantly identifying and depositing our other items into our handheld cart, we went on the hunt for a container of salt. After about twenty minutes of looking we could not find anything remotely similar and decided to ask an employee. He seemed slightly confused but quickly lead us to the wine section, gesturing to the bottles. Despite this mix up, I still kept my optimism and tried to repeat the word in Spanish since it was the only other foreign language I knew. Unfortunately, saying “sal” did not seem to help much and none of the other workers seemed to know what salt was. After accidentally getting led to the bread counter next, my classmate finally tried to ask him for salt in French, saying “sel”. He seemed to understand her because he was able to finally lead us to where the salt was hidden, resulting in laughs and grateful thank yous.
This situation was just one of many where I needed to hold onto my optimism despite complications. Like the vast majority, this experience resolved itself for the better despite my uncertainty. Personally, looking back, I am thankful that I was forced into these types of situations because they pushed me to grow as a person and see the world through the eyes of people other than Americans. Already this has had a lasting impact on me as it has changed my opinion on various issues here in the United States and has helped understand my international friends better.
Beside this nonmaterial experience, my study abroad trip was different in how our classes were structured. Instead of being lecture-based, we got to actually go visit the ancient Roman architecture and art that we were taught about each day, allowing for a higher quality of learning than I get in a classroom. This made me feel that I got much more out of my abroad trip academically than if I had taken these same classes in Fayetteville. Because of this high quality of teaching and the extraordinary experiences I had outside of the classroom, I would definitely recommend this program to future Arkansas students. It is a life changing opportunity and I hope that everyone gets a chance to experience it.
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| Looking Inside the Colosseum |
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History major Rachel Hutchings spent the Summer 2018 term in Italy with our U of A Faculty-Led: Classics in Italy program with the help of our our Office of Study Abroad Scholarship.
Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
History major Rachel Hutchings spent the Summer 2018 term in Italy with our U of A Faculty-Led: Classics in Italy program with the help of our our Office of Study Abroad Scholarship.
Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
