From an altitude of 10 Km, on my way back home from Copenhagen, the Alps look as stunning as always. I have been blessed by this view countless times already, but it truly never gets old. In less than a week, I will gaze at these majestic mountains once again when I’ll be flying from Milan to Berlin to start my 2-months long summer study abroad program, for which I am extremely excited.
Being from Milan (born and raised, I’ve lived my entire life there), however, my experience will most likely be different than most other people’s. After all, Berlin is a bit more than one hour away from home, while it takes me no less than twelve to fly to Chicago. So, although I am still expecting to find some noticeable cultural differences, I probably won’t be as shocked as I am every time I set foot in the States. Nevertheless, I have to admit that most of my time at NU is spent in my tight-knit group of fellow Italians, so living with a group of Americans for 8 weeks and interacting with (hopefully many) Germans, will probably still be as culturally challenging as an ideal study abroad program should be. Moreover, I anticipate the language barrier — something I have hardly ever noticed when traveling around Europe as the weekend tourist I have always been — to hit me hard, thus challenging me to improve my German as much as possible. My long term goal is to study at ETH Zurich, so if everything goes as planned, I will be one step closer to my dream.
Wünsch mir Glück! (Wish me luck!)
