Studying Abroad: Too Much Distance, Too Much Culture Shock, and Too Different from my Cohort
*This is a continuation to my blog post Studying Abroad.
While I do not have an irrational fear of being abroad and traveling, or even more severe, agoraphobia, I did have many fears about studying abroad. Studying abroad was on my radar until two of my mentors strongly encouraged it. While I do not regret my study abroad experience, I thought it would be helpful to talk about my fears for those that are thinking about studying abroad. I went to Barcelona, Spain for 6 weeks to study Art and Art history.
Fear #4: Too Much Distance
When coming to college, I wanted to be far enough to be separate from my family, but close enough that in case of emergency, I could go home or they could get to me. My college is a 1.5 hour drive from my hometown. I am a homebody and being close gives me comfort. Barcelona, on the other hand, is a 10 hour and 15 minute flight, if you get a direct one, a passport, and a $1000 ticket away from Michigan. “In case of emergency” with my family is non-existent when I am this far. Nobody has a passport, so that puts weeks of passport processing into getting to me if necessary. Nobody has $1,000 of disposable money, so this means racking it up in other ways. And a 10 hour flight, at minimum, is not a quick way to get to me.
Knowing I would be so disconnected from my family was a hard pill to swallow. I could video chat with my mom and friends when I had wifi so that was comforting. Barcelona has wifi in their plazas, and there are many plazas. I also had wifi at my host-family’s house. That is when I usually messaged and talked to people from home. Other people in my cohort had data and phone plans while they were in Barcelona. I couldn’t afford that so contacting my family, and even contacting people in my cohort while in Barcelona, was a little more difficult for me compared to other people. I was usually lucky to be near people that had data, so we could contact other people and look up directions when needed. Going abroad would have been easier if I had more access to the world, but being separated made for a unique experience and made me more observant of my surroundings. I am terrible at directions and my time in Barcelona, I believe, made me better than I was before. I could get around Barcelona without a GPS but when I go to Saginaw, my hometown that I lived in for 18 years, I still use a GPS.
Fear #5: Too Much Culture Shock
Barcelona culture was very different from Ann Arbor/Saginaw culture. Just the idea that people in Barcelona speaking in Catalan and Spanish was enough to blow my mind. The amount of plazas, the type of food, and the things I ran into, such as the Castellers (as depicted above) kept me on my toes. There are so many places to congregate in Barcelona. Each plaza is like the University of Michigan’s Diag. They ate less food more frequently. They ate bread with squashed tomato on it. They loved squid. They ate ham that was more like Canadian bacon. These things exist in America as well, but when you order a ham sandwich or pizza, you just expect to get something different.
While different, the Barcelona culture was amazing. Maybe it was because I was there in the spring, but just being outside and seeing the beautiful architecture and all the things to do in the city was amazing. Especially when in comparison to going back to school where the majority of the time it feels like I am slipping on ice. I was afraid that I would experience things due to my race, but I did not experience discrimination, to my knowledge. There were so many visitors in Barcelona that if I got treated in a certain way, it was probably because I am an American. Barcelona is a tourist attraction so the streets and sidewalks were always crowded downtown. Being around so many new things was a great experience and made me feel like I can adapt to new situations. I may be moving away for graduate school to another state, and now that I’ve been to Barcelona, being in a new place and far from home doesn’t scare me as much.
Fear #6: Too Different from my Cohort
This is a fear that happens in any new situation that I am in. Being too different from my peers. Usually it is because I am Black and low-income. I felt alone in high school, college, and Barcelona. In high school, I was not the only Black person, but I did feel like the only person that was as low-income as I was. I know that probably is not true and I made a friend in a grade lower than me that had financial issues as well, but the majority of people seemed to be better off than me. In college, many people are wealthy. I did make friends that have similar experiences related to my financial situation. Going to Barcelona, would I find anyone? Many people are not open about their financial situation in the first place. I already thought that studying abroad was a rich student thing. After meeting everyone, I still did not feel like there was anyone quite like me.
I am okay with my background, but I just felt reserved in things that I did because of my financial circumstances. It is okay if everyone is different from you. Just find a way to have fun based on your identities. I went to the free day at the museums, watched how much my food cost, and was very careful not to lose my phone/wallet (or for them to be stolen from me in large crowds). These are things that I do in college that richer people are more carefree about. If you are low-income and this is one of your fears, it should actually be your drive to go abroad. Being from a place where many people hardly leave their city, it is important for you to get out and have new experiences. That way, your friends, family, and children will be more comfortable with doing something that for so long seemed like a “rich people thing.”