I’ve traveled quite a bit so far. And my favorite souvenirs are postcards. Every city has them no matter what country you’re in, they’re always cheap, and friends and family love to receive them. And while I would love to just collect journals from every place I visit, it makes the suitcase quite heavy after a while. I discovered that, after living for six months in Germany, I had collected way too many journals/books/glass bottles. Let’s just say that getting home was quite the experience. So, yes, I’m going to try and stick to just postcards from now on.
Things I learned from my Italy trip:
- Give yourself more time than two days per city. We did three cities in nine days and while I wouldn’t trade that experience for the world, I was exhausted by the end of the trip. If you’re going on a vacation, it needs to be just that, a vacation. If you have to come home and recover from the vacation than something might be wrong. Which brings me to
- Give yourself time to relax. I went to Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance. One of the most beautiful countries I’ve seen so far. And at the end of it, I wished I had just take a day or two in each place to just sit in the park and soak up that beautiful Italian sun.
- If there’s something you really want to
do, do it. I let the insecurity of leaving my group and other people talk me out of going to some of the museums in Italy. And that’s probably my biggest regret about the whole trip. We didn’t see the real David (though apparently that needed to be booked far in advance), and we didn’t go to the Uffizi Museum in Florence. At the time I told myself that I didn’t need to spend 40 euros on a ticket to a museum, but now I wished that I had. - Put the phone away. There are many great things about my generation, but I fully admit that all of us probably spend too much time on our phones/tablet/computer. In Europe, wi-fi was few and far between. Usually only existing in restaurants or bars, in which case you had to be a customer to use it. I found this amazingly freeing. I was able to look up and around at this amazing city, and not have to worry about if I was missing someone’s text or email. I didn’t feel like I needed to check my Facebook feed all the time. Unplugging and just enjoying life sans technology is something we should all try to do a little more often.
- And finally, don’t be afraid to try new things. I’ll be honest. While I wanted to study abroad since I was in middle school, the idea also terrified me. I would be on the other side of an ocean! I’d miss family birthdays and holidays! What if something bad happened? It’s a scary feeling. But once I was over there I felt like I learned so much about myself. I tried things that I never thought I’d ever try. I tried things that I
never wanted to try. But I tried them none the less. And guess what? I’m still here. I’m not saying every experience was a good one, but I never would have known that if I hadn’t at least tried. Some of the greatest times I had in Europe came from people pushing me outside of my comfort zone.
I learned so much from my time abroad. Don’t be afraid to get out there yourself! And don’t underestimate the awesome power of postcards.
reluctantkansan 