As this past month has progressed, I’ve been slowly separating fact from fiction when it comes to what people stuffed into this brain of mine before I left the States. The most prominent misconceptions are as follows:

1. “Traveling will be SO easy and cheap! My friend’s (insert distant relative’s title here) studied abroad and he would fly for $10 last minute to (insert stellar country here).”

While traveling the equivalent distance of Austin to Orlando might be less expensive in Europe, it is not “cheap” in the sense that you should expect to pay only $10 to fly to wherever your heart desires. When it comes down to it though, who cares how much your ticket to London costs? It’s LONDON. GO. You will regret it if you don’t and you know it. 

2. “Italian is so easy to learn. It’s in the same language family as Spanish, so you’ll have no problem picking it up!”

Italian is a difficult language. Sure, there are times where I’ll discover Spanish and Italian share a word (like “pollo” for chicken), but for the most part I struggle throughout the day to communicate in a world where my native tongue is completely useless. I struggle way more than I’d like to admit. I’m trying to pick up Italian when I can, but something tells me I won’t be sparking up a conversation with a Milanese person any time soon.

3. “Classes are so easy. The professors know you’re REALLY there to travel, so they make it easy on you to get an A.”

This is my favorite misconception (or least favorite, depending on how you look at it). I wish I could tell you this was true. I wish so bad for your naïve heart that I could gently pat you on the back and tell you this was true. But as far as courses go here for my university, they’re equivalent to upper-level courses found at other schools in America. They’re even slightly more difficult because the teaching style here includes a straight lecture for two hours (I’m never complaining about class lengths when I get back to Austin ever again) with little to no power point action to liven things up.

This whole thing is a learning experience, and while some people are already ready to go back to America, I honestly really like it here. Yes, it’s different. No, there was nothing I could’ve done to REALLY mentally prepare myself. But I’ve learned how to do so much in this past month that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to otherwise (like figuring out a subway system alone, or even little things like how to maneuver a gas stove without burning the apartment down) that it’s been a challenge I’ve loved.