by Maria Aguirre
Hello everyone! My name is Maria Aguirre, and I am from Richmond, California. I attended Richmond High School and am a third-year student at UCLA, majoring in International Development. With the help of the Ahlsten Foundation, I was able to study abroad in Florence, Italy, last summer for one month. I had always dreamed of going to Florence, Italy, and when I found the opportunity to study abroad through my university, I knew it was something that I wanted to participate in. I participated in an English program where I studied different American authors who wrote in different locations, primarily in Florence and some in Rome. In my classes, we read books from these authors, but being in Florence allowed me to visit the locations of what we were reading! My favorite part of being in Italy was that I was able to travel to different cities on the weekends when I didn’t have classes. This allowed me to fully immerse myself in everything in Italy from the food to all the different activities. One of my least favorite things was getting sick during the trip and having to isolate in my apartment for one week. Of course, the biggest challenge was not knowing how to speak Italian. However, I was able to manage by picking up common phrases and practicing those, and a lot of the places I visited had translated signs or menus.
My biggest takeaway from this experience was to be open to trying new things and to not be afraid to get out of your comfort zone. If you are interested in studying abroad, I would 100% recommend it! Don’t be afraid that you won’t be able to manage being in another place if you don’t speak the language or if you’re scared you’ll be lost. I would recommend that you plan on researching other places you want to visit during your trip or create a list of things that you want to do before you leave so you won’t spend time during your trip finding things to do. If I could study abroad again, I would want to go to Spain!
