I have now returned to the United States from my study abroad in Porto, Portugal. Our final pitch for our program abroad went really well, and I made some friends that I won’t soon forget through this. I’m confident that we will stay in touch and remain friends despite us living all across the United States. The main takeaway that I had from this trip abroad was realizing the different cultures that exist in other places in the world. For example, I was shocked to see how much Europeans knew and kept up with American politics and geography. Whenever I introduced myself, I didn’t expect them to know what Alabama was since there are several more globally relevant states in America. However, each of them knew what and where it was, and they usually made a remark about Lynyrd Skynyrd. I arrived about 12 days ago, so I had some time to settle down before I returned to school for my Senior year. When I first arrived at the Atlanta airport, my first thought was “this is home.” I couldn’t wait for my first meal back in the United States and eagerly made a beeline to the airport Chick-fil-A. Don’t get me wrong, the food in Portugal was incredible; I was just ready to have some comfort food that I had been lacking for the past four weeks. I never really had any sort of reverse culture shock when I returned home. I was beyond happy to have air conditioning and accessibility to water, as well as other comforts of home that I had been missing.
