Potentially the greatest highlight of my time spent abroad was all our travels on the weekends, but in particular, that very first weekend. Within the first three days of the trip, we managed to plan a weekend excursion to an island off the Amalfi Coast with nine other people that I had never met before in my life. We booked a large Airbnb to accommodate us all then set out for the beautiful island of Capri at 3am Saturday morning. This experience is something so unique and special to study abroad because in no other circumstance would I plan a vacation to travel away and stay in the same house as nine strangers who I had only just met days before. There is something about all being in the same boat of living in a totally foreign country without the comforts and familiarities of home that brings people together and creates friendships like nothing else.
I cannot think of a better way to learn art and economics than to visit and explore the markets, museums, and rich architecture of the city of Rome. Each day for class we would leave the classroom to observe a real-world lesson in art or in the practices of market exchange and supply & demand. I was able to make economic observations of things that at the surface seemed to not contain any economics at all. This class taught me so much more than economics; it taught me to look beyond the surface and to become a watchful observer of the world around me. You cannot learn that in a classroom in Fayetteville. I do not think that I have ever truly appreciated art until I was able to experience it in the context of Roman culture first hand. You can look at pieces of art on a screen or in a textbook all day and not be interested at all until you are living it, walking in it, and taking in every detail with your own two eyes.
I cannot think of a better way to learn art and economics than to visit and explore the markets, museums, and rich architecture of the city of Rome. Each day for class we would leave the classroom to observe a real-world lesson in art or in the practices of market exchange and supply & demand. I was able to make economic observations of things that at the surface seemed to not contain any economics at all. This class taught me so much more than economics; it taught me to look beyond the surface and to become a watchful observer of the world around me. You cannot learn that in a classroom in Fayetteville. I do not think that I have ever truly appreciated art until I was able to experience it in the context of Roman culture first hand. You can look at pieces of art on a screen or in a textbook all day and not be interested at all until you are living it, walking in it, and taking in every detail with your own two eyes.
In preparation for the trip, I expected to feel more uncomfortable than I did. I didn’t expect to find joy in living in an apartment of our own and having to cook and clean and do our own laundry like independent adults, but I did. I didn’t expect to enjoy waking up early in the morning to walk a mile to class every day, but I did. I certainly didn’t expect to create as many new and lasting friendships as I did in such a short time, but I did. Absolutely everything about my trip and experience studying abroad completely blew my expectations out of the water. I could write a novel on all my adventures from the past month and must hold myself back from doing so. From seeing the inside of Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Colosseum, to feeding wild Reindeer on a Greek island, to learning to cook magnificent Italian dinners in my own apartment, to standing on top of the Florence Dome, to floating in the Mediterranean Sea without a care in the world, this last month has been the best of my life.
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Jacob spent the summer 2018 term at our U of A Rome Center.
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