Jillian Sweeny: My four months abroad!

Jillian Sweeny is a junior Journalism major at University of California, Irvine Campus from Northern California. Jillian had the opportunity to study abroad in Florence, Italy during the fall 2008 semester. Jillian said “I'd known for a long time I was going to study abroad, it was just a matter of where. My older sister studied abroad in France for a semester when I was in high school and always said she wished she had stayed the year. It was then I cemented the idea of staying an entire school year in another country while learning the language.”

Although Jillian was very adamant spending an entire year in a foreign country unfortunately that dream was deferred. Jillian stated “Plans changed as my major doesn't allow its students to leave for an entire year. I chose Italy because I spent a few days in Southern Italy through a high school program and, to borrow the perfectly fitting cliche, had the time of my life. I'd travelled to France, Canada, Ireland, and Spain, and although I love Ireland and seriously considered it as an option, I wanted to experience the challenges of language barriers."

In preparation, Jillian studied beginner Italian courses for a year before making her way to Florence. She chose to study through American Institute of Foreign Study(AIFS) because it was the only program offered through the University of California system that had most of what she was looking for, “it offered home-stays in Florence, which is surprisingly difficult to find in a program” Jillian said.

When asked to sum four month experience up Jillian left me with these words “My experience is typical in a few ways. I made new friends, gorged myself with Italian food, learned how to read a map, improved my broken Italian, took an innumerable amount of photos, and couldn't believe it had all gone by so fast by the time I got home. In other ways, however, my time abroad was a unique experience that ushered clarity and growth into my life. I'm not going to say it creates epiphanies, or it fixes problems, but studying abroad was definitely a stage of learning in my life and I am grateful for the experience.”