Anthony Bourdain once said, “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
I walked into my Study Abroad this summer with this mindset, that I wasn’t expecting perfect to happen, or even pretty. I was expecting growth and change, and really just expecting life to happen. I had a wonderful time, but I think setting realistic expectations for oneself, especially when abroad, is key to enjoying your time. I fully knew that I would have times of stress, joy, exhaustion, and awe. I think that in that way, my Study Abroad experience lived up to all of my expectations.
I studied abroad with Dr. Marquardt and Dr. Pope from COBA in July of 2018, in Leipzig, Germany. We had a full, rich, and experiential time in Germany. We took two classes while abroad: Global Operations Management and Cross-Cultural Organizational Behavior. I’m a double major in Business Management and Global Studies, so I’ve always felt that I had a decent grasp on international awareness and understanding. However, living day to day in Germany and immersing myself in these classes showed me that I had much to learn.
If I’m honest, part of being in Germany was the culture shock. Germans live very differently than we do in North America, and it was good for me to experience this and have to grow as a person. Dr. Pope and Dr. Marquardt both emphasized observation and understanding of the German people and modeled this through their own interactions. Respect for other cultures is key, and I learned this as we traversed through Germany as a group on all of our weekend trips.
Outside of the group’s travels to Wittenberg, Weimar, and Berlin, I chose to go to London and then spend a week in Italy as well traveling with a friend. I think that these times, traveling without the group, really tested my cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity. Having to navigate new cultures with language and time barriers shows you to live humbly, and be willing to ask questions.
I had times where I was lost, or had no cell service, or had mistaken interactions with locals when I felt like giving up. But as Bourdain said, travel is is meant to change you, and make you uncomfortable at times. I thought that I was an experienced traveler in the States until I went abroad, and then I realized how small and human I am when compared to all of the other people living in this world. I don’t know as much as I thought I did, and the best way to live is to walk around expecting to learn from the good and bad.
I absolutely loved my Study Abroad experience, and I could not have gone without support from both of my departments and the Honors College. I will always feel grateful and blessed to have this experience as part of my undergraduate experience at ACU.
