Soy Expatriada: 5-Week Europe Adventure

I have a confession to make. Don't tell my mother, but I don't own a pair of shower shoes. Over the course of five weeks, 6 countries and 11 cities, I never once wore a pair of flip flops into a hostel shower stall. I know, disgusting. After all, there could be cleaning fluid and skin cells and MRSA swimming around my bare feet. Somehow it never bothered me. Armed with only one pair of pants, a hand towel, a return plane ticket from Ireland to Spain, and a puffy backpack that made me feel like I was carrying the shell of a Ninja Turtle, I spent my winter break taking Europe by storm. It is amazing to me how travel changes a person. 4 months ago I couldn't figure out how I would manage to spend the holidays away from everyone and everything I know and love. I couldn't imagine traveling alone for any extended period of time, or navigating public transportation in another language. Nonetheless, despite the mistakes I made and risks I took, I somehow managed to do all of these things; and furthermore I didn't lose my passport, get kidnapped or wind up at any American embassy with a freak hostel-shower-gangrene infected foot.

It is hard for me to explain to you or anyone what travel and study abroad has changed about me and for me. Maybe everything, maybe nothing - change is a difficult thing to measure. Furthermore, it is impossible for me to fully convey to you; what this trip, this time studying abroad, this change has meant to me. Perhaps I am just young and naive and privileged, but I feel that I trust and appreciate the world more than ever, now that I have really been in it. I may not know who I am or what I am doing here, but there is a whole world out there where I can search for answers and be happy.