Submitted by Sydney Ballenger the 2024 Spring program in Rome, Italy…
Week Five:
This week, I started to feel the constant stimulation catch up with me. I had planned to travel to Cinque Terre with my roommate and a few friends this weekend, but after a long week, my roommate and I chose to instead spend the weekend at home in Rome. We had been away traveling the past couple weekends and decided it was time for a much needed break. Studying abroad is both incredible and exhausting and the constant movement and adjustment to new surroundings, things, and people can catch up with you before you know it. Instead of spending the weekend exploring another new place, we explored more of Rome– finding a couple of new bookstores, a delicious hole in the wall pizza place, and of course, more gelato. There is a lot of pressure when studying abroad to “make the most of it” and spend as much time as possible traveling. While I love traveling, and have enjoyed the trips I’ve been on so far and am looking forward to the ones I have planned in the future, I think that an equally important aspect of studying abroad is exploring the space you actually live in and getting to know it as well as possible. (Submitted on February 11, 2024)