As it turns out, I’ll be back in Nebraska in three days. That’s right, I avoided blogging for an entire MONTH. It felt wrong leaving the MaddieStuDiesAbroad saga to end with my favorite awful recipes, so I came back today to tie it all up.
As much as I’d love to write about everything I’ve done in the weeks since I last posted, I don’t have time to transcribe a month’s worth of journal entries. Instead, I want to share with you all (yep, all 4 of you reading this!!) the most important things I learned this semester.
Never forget your passport. This may sound obvious, but we had some issues with this one (sorry, Emily). Choose one place to keep it so you can make sure you always know where to find it when you need it. Otherwise, you could end up unable to get on your flight to Paris or in jail or something. Who knows?
Make a grocery list. Is this common sense? Probably. Could I have easily avoided having 4 balls of buffalo mozzarella in my fridge at one time? Yes. Did I? No.
If you spend less time doing makeup, you have more time to sleep and/or eat breakfast. This was covered in the post about international beauty, but I just wanted to make sure you remember.
Always have at least one (okay, maybe two) bottles of wine in your fridge. What if unexpected guests show up? What if you have a bad day? What if you have a good day? What if you desperately want a glass of wine, but it’s raining and the grocery store is half a mile away? Just keep it stocked.
Keeping a journal was the best choice I made. I mean, yeah, I was required to write 2-3 pages a day for class and was graded on whether or not I completed these pages, BUT it’s so cool to be able and remind myself of the smaller details I don’t always remember (trespassing at the Acropolis at midnight on my first night in Greece, for example).
McDonalds tastes the same everywhere. Except the fries. The fries are bad in Slovenia. Maybe just don’t eat McDonalds in Europe (or America, really).
Avoid being glued to your phone at all times by running out of data so you literally can’t use your phone for two weeks.
Drink coffee instead of taking naps. This gives you more time to do important things like homework, exploring or watching Netflix.
Wear comfy shoes. Some pretentious people will judge you for your lack of fashion sense, but would you rather be looked down on or have unbearable blisters on your feet? Yeah…you’re right. Suck it up and wear cute shoes.
Try to learn at least a few basic words in the language of whatever country you visit. Not learning Italian before/during this semester was a huge fail on my part, which my mother reminds me of every day.
DON'T TAKE THINGS FOR GRANTED. I complained so much about a lot of dumb things –primarily one stupid airport – this semester, but ultimately I know I'll never have an opportunity like this again. I visited 34 cities in 11 countries throughout this semester and I'm preeeeetty sure I won't be able to do something like this again for a very long time (at least not on an advertising salary lol).
LAsT but not LeAsT: Being away from home for four months has given me a weird amount of Nebraskan pride. Nobody has even heard of that state, so I got to make it out to be whatever I wanted it to be (mainly just talked about corn, Runza and football). I’m weirdly excited to come home.
I also learned some stuff about advertising, writing, psychology and opera, but who cares about that? Thanks to all of you who actually read this blog all semester, despite my inability to maintain a posting schedule. I’m sure it could’ve been so much better, but this is all you get. Ciao, ciao everyone!