Hopes & Goals while Abroad

I’m from Texas. When we get an inch of snow, we get out of school for a week and the entire state shuts down, and I wish that were an exaggeration. For the study abroad year, I’ve chosen to go to either Sweden or Finland, which couldn’t be any more different from Texas, weather-wise. With that being said, one of my goals for my year abroad is avoiding frostbite.

In all seriousness, I’m both incredibly excited and terrified for this opportunity. Obviously I’m excited because I’ll be studying in a country I’d always thought I would only see in my dreams, and I’ll have the opportunity to really become familiar with the culture of this country. I want to know how their daily lives are different than ours and how their political and religious views from the generally accepted one in the United States. However, I’m also terrified in part because of the reasons I mentioned above. I’ll be in a new country and I’ll have to learn to adapt to their culture because it would be foolish to expect them to adapt to mine. In short, change is scary.

While I’m abroad, I hope to acquire some sort of language proficiency. I kind of speak conversational Swedish – I could probably make my way around town or complete a transaction at the grocery store without needing a translation – although I've been told the Swedes would rather interact in English than bother with an American struggling their way through Swedish. However, I only know how to say “I’m tired” in Finnish (Ma oon väsynyt, in case you were wondering). Depending on where I end up (gosh, I’m so excited to find out!), I want to leave the country feeling confident that I was able to master at least a little bit of Finnish or Swedish.

Additionally, I wish to make new friends, both from the host country and other exchange students from other parts of the United States and the world! This is obviously a goal every person that studies abroad wishes to achieve; spending a year abroad without any friends would be an absolutely miserable way to spend a year. Because there will be plenty of opportunities to mingle with other students, I’m not at all worried about accomplishing this goal, but it’s an important one to me, so I figured it was worth mentioning.

Personally, I feel like my most important goal is being able to take a wide variety of classes focused on both Nordic and European culture and history. Here at Maryville College, we, unfortunately, do not offer as many European-centered class as I would like, so I would like to take as many European-focused classes as possible while I have the opportunity to do so.

I also hope to do a bit of travelling while I’m in Europe; travel is cheap in Europe, and I want to take advantage of that. Just in Finland and Sweden, I’d like to visit Helsinki, Lapland (specifically, the Northern Lights), Stockholm, and Gothenburg. I’d additionally like to visit Switzerland, Germany, and Czech Republic if I get the chance to.

Overall, I want to do two things. First, I want to learn more than I ever have. I want to learn about Europe and the Nordic countries and about the world in general, and being abroad is the perfect opportunity to do that. Second, I want to have more fun than I ever have. I want to go on crazy adventures like hiking snowy mountains and getting lost in a foreign city with my newfound friends, and, again, being abroad is the perfect opportunity to do so.