Bridget Manning is a previous United Planet Program Advisor turned study abroad student who will be corresponding with us from Barcelona, Spain! She has spent some time traveling abroad, from vacationing to volunteering and now studying, which will be lending her a unique voice in comparing each experience. Read on to hear more about her reflections and revelations to come!
The answer to the question posed in the title is more complicated
than I thought it would be.
When I was 16 years old I had my first abroad experience. I spent a month with a Spanish family in Madrid for an exchange program. A whole month speaking Spanish, although it helped that almost everyone in my ‘family’ spoke English as well. Two summers later, when I was 18, I stayed another month with the same wonderful family. This time, however, I spoke almost entirely in Spanish and I was much more comfortable being away from home. But to be honest, each time those month-long stays came to an end, I called my parents crying, telling them I wasn’t ready to come home. During my two trips to Spain I don’t think I had enough time to go through the cycle of culture shock. I don’t remember hitting the lows that everyone warns you about before you go abroad.
Then the next summer, the summer of 2012, I spent three months in Romania at the age of 19. I was interning for United Planet as a volunteer coordinator. This trip was a little bit different than my trips to Spain. I didn’t know Romanian, I didn’t know anyone else going, I was going for three months instead of one, and my ability to communicate with home was severely limited. The culture was also quite different than that of the United States. Hello culture shock!! But once again, I don’t think I went through the textbook culture shock. I attribute that to being around people who spoke English, being busy and a little bit stressed, and to the fact that I like the relaxed pace of Romanian life more than the fast pace of American life. What can be gained from this example is that both keeping oneself busy and trying to enjoy aspects of the culture you are immersed in are definitely ways to try and minimize the lows that usually accompany culture shock.
Today, I am currently sitting in my dorm room in Barcelona as I begin my six-month-long semester abroad. Six months is twice as long as my Romania trip and I am interested to see how I handle it. I thought that because I had been to Spain twice before and had spent such an extensive time in Romania that Barcelona would be a walk in the park. But I am not quite as sure now that I am here. I won’t even try and speculate now, only 5 days into my trip, but I might just have to write another blog post.
The answer to the question in the title of this entry is both a YES and a NO. Unless you are returning to the same place each time you travel abroad, each trip you take will be accompanied by some difficulties. While traveling or staying abroad, you may have some logistical problems. You may have emotional difficulties (culture shock, homesickness) and you may have some physical difficulties (jet lag and the inevitable stomach bug).
I know that almost everything that could go wrong has gone wrong for me (knock on wood). But I also know that everything that could go right has also gone right for me. And it would be fair to say that the good has far outweighed the bad. How are you supposed to learn anyway? Someone very close to me used to say, “nothing good comes from anything easy.” He couldn’t be more right.
ABOUT UNITED PLANET
United Planet is a non-profit organization with a mission to create a global community, one relationship at a time. Established in 2001, United Planet offers volunteer abroad, virtual internships, internships abroad, gap year volunteering, and global virtual exchange in more than 40 countries.
