When I first arrived in Dubrovnik, Croatia, there were a lot of thoughts running through my head. Firstly, as I grabbed my bag off of the baggage claim belt, I noticed that my suitcase had been destroyed to the point that I could see all of my clothes through the liner and the handle had almost completely detached. This was a bit discouraging since I knew I would have to drag my luggage across Europe and hope that my clothes did not scatter among various locations of the trip. The next task on my agenda was to look for people that looked like they would be students on the same trip as me. Luckily, at baggage claim I made eye contact with two people and introduced myself to them, discovering that they were also students on the same trip. This was comforting because I had made my first friends before even leaving the airport!
Upon arriving at our first destination (student dormitories of Dubrovnik), I eagerly unpacked and toured around the dorms. I was excited that the living situation was so nice and that there was plenty of room to sprawl out all of my clothes. My biggest recommendation is to make friends with your roommates! In each location, I was assigned a different roommate which made it so easy for me to make friends with all of the different groups of people. On the night everyone arrived, our professors hosted a welcome dinner for us which allowed us to mingle with each other and was the perfect kickstart to the creation of long lasting friendships.
Taking classes abroad is definitely different from the traditional classroom experience. In the program I took part in, we had two hour lectures each morning of the week day for the first two weeks of our trip at universities within the cities. In class, we would follow our professors slideshow with printed out slideshow notes which helped me to stay engaged. We had practice problems to complete in class that were in the workbook and also homework questions that were online that we did independently. We had two tests, a midterm and a final, that were on the Fridays of each week. On both Thursdays before our test, we would all get together in the lobby of our hotel and form study groups. Our professors would also join us in the lobby and provide “office hours” for any questions we may have had about the tests. We also had several seminars hosted by professors at the universities that our classes were hosted in which allowed us to learn even more outside of the classroom!
After class, my classmates and I had an amazing time touring around the different cities, laying out at the beach, and taking part in various excursions that our professors had so graciously planned for us! Be sure to take your academics seriously but also enjoy the time that you have outside of the classroom to explore and build lasting connections with friends!
The images below were from my time in Dubrovnik, Croatia. This location surprised me as one of my favorite locations of the trip! After class in the mornings, it was amazing to be able to enjoy these beautiful views and spend time with friends!
