The day we flew into Italy was crazy. We got on our flight at around 7 pm EST and arrived in Rome at about 10:30 am in their time zone (about a 9 hour flight, overnight). We met up with the rest of the group, got on a bus, rode three hours to Pompeii, put our stuff down, freshened up, and went right back out to explore the ruins of Pompeii for 2-3 hours. Needless to say, we were exhausted. I felt like I hadn’t had a second to breathe and I was starting to think “Oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into?” I felt disoriented and nervous in a different country with a different language. I went to bed that night feeling a little anxious.
The next day changed everything for me. I felt rested. I felt optimistic. We ate breakfast, got on the bus, and traveled to Paestum. I had no idea what or why we were going here. Our itinerary just said “Greek temples at Paestum”. I didn’t expect to be blown away or anything. I thought they would be almost unidentifiable ruins.
When we got there, we all gathered on some rocks right in front of one of the temples. Our teachers told us the history of what we were looking at, as well as the history of the journey that we were about to embark on. “The Grand Tour” is something that influential people have been doing for hundreds of years. They saw all of the sights that we were going to see. They were inspired and brought that inspiration home with them.
We started walking, visiting each of the three temples. These temples were built between 550 and 450 BCE. Someone in the group said “THESE TEMPLES ARE OLDER THAN JESUS!!” But for real, this stuff was OLD. Much older than anything any of us had probably seen before. It was amazing. It made me think and imagine. It was unlike any other experience I had ever had. I can’t really describe this visit in a short blog post. You’ll have to go see it yourself 😉
To add onto this, I went with a small group to a pizza place, hidden behind the main street. We had no idea what we were doing or what anything said. But the nice lady at the restaurant gladly brought us in, helped us out, and made us feel like we were being somewhat successful travelers. I also had THE BEST pizza of my entire life.
We got back on the bus and I felt so at ease. I thought about my worries the night before and how I was worried that I would just be running around confused and uncomfortable the whole trip. Paestum let me know that I was going to be fine and I was going to see so many amazing things on this trip that I needed to stop worrying and just start enjoying everything.
That would be my advice to someone going on a study abroad trip. Just let yourself enjoy it. Don’t let worry consume you. You’ll get comfortable and you’ll have fun.
