Studying abroad is a big deal. Deciding to drop all your on campus commitments and move to another country for a semester is a hard decision. But ten times out of ten I would say to go for it!
Studying abroad has been such a great and formative experience for me. I’m not going to lie and say everything was all sunshine and rainbows. There are definitely difficult things about being abroad. However, even these difficulties are worth it because they help you grow.
I took part in the Montevideo Spanish immersion program. This means that all of our classes were in Spanish! This really allowed me to get better at all the components . The classes I took, including southern cone culture, immersion communication, literature, short stories, and linguistics are some of the best classes I have taken part in with ACU. Being abroad you get to build a more intimate bond with your professors. This has helped me to be more active in the learning process and more determined to do well and grasp new concepts. These classes and connections were also amazing in guiding our cultural experience. In our culture class we would discuss concepts before we had a group activity to experience those concepts. Some of these included the most prominent culture markers of Uruguay like asado, tango, and murgas. Then in immersion communication I got to interview Uruguayans and learn about their day to day lives.
Outside of class I got the opportunity to do a lot of extra travel. As a group we visited Punta del Diablo, Cabo Polonio, Buenos Aires in Argentina and took a trip through the interior of Uruguay. These trips were amazing and truly gave me a wider worldview and more cultural understanding from big city life in Buenos Aires to the gaucho life in Tacuarembo. Our trip to Punta del Diablo and Cabo Polonio was especially formative. I was a week late getting to Uruguay due to having Covid. So I arrived the day that the group was heading out for these places. While this trip was really fun, not one day went by without a problem. Day one I blew out my double cord charger. Day two I lost my phone in the ocean. Day three I thought I lost my purse. Day four we figured out that our place in Cabo had bed bugs and I got a huge jellyfish sting. Day five I ended up on an eight mile walk on loose sand. I know you are probably thinking “wow, that sounds terrible”. But it really was not. The Montevideo staff and the group were so kind and helpful, and I got to learn how resilient I was. If anything, it was a confidence booster. I realized just how capable I am.
On top of these trips I got to travel to Ushuaia and Bariloche in Argentina with a couple of people. With Covid-19 we were unable to visit Peru which would have been my top choice; however, because of that I got the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit these more niche places. Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world, known as “the end of the world”. In order to get there on a budget we had to take a bus, ferry, and plane. While difficult, this helped me become more independent and capable of planning travel on my own. Ushuaia was amazing and I would recommend it to everyone. One of my favorite memories during my study abroad experience actually occurred in Ushuaia. We went on a hike to try to reach glacier Martial, which was at the top of a mountain in the Andes. There came a point during the hike where there was not much of a trail and we had to walk a long way uphill. While we were up there there was a blizzard! Luckily we were prepared with layers. But the blizzard was so heavy that the snow covered our path! The experience was so memorable because of the extremity of it. We had to work together to get back to the main trail through a literal blizzard.
Studying abroad is such a grand adventure and I would advise anyone considering it, just go for it! You will not regret it.
Featured Photo: Selfie on Pocitos Beach
Group picture in Buenos Aires
Merienda with our special guests in Immersion Communication class
Hiking in the snow in Ushuaia
Sunset in Punta del Este