Although we were warned in orientation that there would be reverse culture shock upon coming home, I didn’t quite understand it in the moment. It wasn’t until I touched back down it Atlanta, Georgia, from Rome that it really hit me that I just spent a semester in another country, with people I didn’t know prior to leaving. The first thing that hit me was simply hearing an American accent as the background noise instead of Italian conversation. It was fascinating walking around Florence, not having a clue what the people around me were saying, but upon coming back, I could understand every background conversation if I paid attention.

Next, the size of everything, and the amount of options there were is what got me. In Italy, you had an about four choices of drink, unless you went to a specialty store that had a few more. Those options were Coca-Cola, Sprite, still water and sparkling water. As soon as I went to a little shop in the airport, I was taken aback at seeing the six options for Coca-Cola alone.

Perhaps the most challenging part of the switch back to the U.S., though, was not having anyone around me that quite understood the experience. Of course my family wanted to know all about it, and I told them what I could, but the experience itself is not something you can truly put into words. It might not make a lot of sense, but it was truly such a life changing thing, that it is hard to put into words just how amazing it was. Thankfully, I made enough friends while I was abroad that I have been able to keep in touch with them online since coming home, so I have a few people to talk to that understand. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to go abroad, and would do it a thousand times over if I could.

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Learn more about this blogger’s study abroad program: Florence University of the Arts