Pre-Trip Thoughts:

Before travelling to Italy (Milan) I was feeling a mix of nerves and excitement. For me, this was probably going to be one of the biggest moves of my life. Fifty per cent of my focus was concentrated on the imminent prospect of living in a new culture by myself, with no real concept of how anything was going to turn out. Another twenty-five per cent was concentrated on the logistics of not only the university I would be attending, but also picking a new accommodation with 'as always' potentially dodgy landlords. Moreover, sorting the financial implications of money management and overspending played a key role in these nerves. Of course, that leaves the final twenty-five per cent. I left this to wander onto the thought of what life was actually going to turn out like through the many new choices I was going to have to make.

In the first month after having Italy secured as my study placement, I tried to start sorting through everything that I thought I might need to take and what would fit in my suitcase. Realistically for me, this turned out to be rather pointless. Being someone who’s better at working efficiently close to the time of deadlines, the prospect of working through everything this early was difficult. I struggled to think of what I would need and why it was needed. This left me feeling frustrated and as if I was wasting the time I had to work and earn money for my year out. For context, I was working six days a week at this mid-summer June/July point to fund being away. Admittedly, this working style did leave me with no accommodation sorted by mid-August and my mum with potential PTSD from the stress of me having almost nothing but courses sorted. However, in my books, this was the prime time to start sorting through everything. By now I was financially sorted and started planning my packing and accommodation.

Skipping past several accommodation rejections and getting charged 40$ by ErasmusU merely for using their service (don’t use them for accommodation), I had finally found a place to live. Of course, 730$ a month was expensive in terms of accommodation, but this was only £610 because of the exchange rate. Now having a place to live was resolved, I started to focus on what I wanted to achieve while I would be out there. Not only on an academic front, but also culturally and educationally. Living in Italy would provide a key insight into new forms of learning and a level of culture that can’t be achieved by just visiting new places. This is what I want my year abroad to achieve. Being able to intertwine yourself with any culture and become part of it is a skill that’s so valuable to master. Of course, all skills have to be learned and practised. With practice comes failure, but with a year ahead of me and an array of opportunities and chances to experience, I realised that failure is just one step of the process.