Before going on this trip I was pretty excited for about a month but honestly kind of nervous the first few days right before I left. I hadn’t been out of the continental US or Canada before so I knew I was about to be changed forever in Toulouse, France. I found out about this study abroad through Dr. Pesti in poultry science and wanted to do it because it was financially possible and I had always been curious about agriculture products in Europe. Being a Poultry Science major, we get lots of questions about the very conventional practices in the US compared to the more “humane” practices in other parts of the world so I was ready to get a new perspective. I also really just wanted to travel but was scared to because I would be alone in a new place where I knew the language very minimally.
The study abroad will hopefully help me become a better world traveler as I would like to be for years to come. I bought my plane ticket about a month out from the departure date but was able to get a good deal on it because I left a day before most of the students going on the study abroad. My friend and I planned ahead to go to Amsterdam for a few days after the trip so I actually bought two different plane tickets. I would fly into Amsterdam and then from there fly into Toulouse through KLM. I actually hadn’t ridden a plane before by myself and the only scary part of that I thought would be the language barrier once I was on the Dutch and French airlines. I was worried financially too honestly so I made a budget for weekly costs before I left to help with this. I was looking forward to the cheese, pretty languages, and new landscapes before I left. I was most nervous about my finances and the language barrier.
