Before you dismiss this piece as a personal gripe coming from a homesick, Hilltop-crazy Hoya, a disclaimer: my semester in Strasbourg, France, was fine. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Like any student abroad, I met interesting people from all over the world, I got to know a little bit about my host region’s culture, I ate way too much delicious local food, and most importantly, my French improved in ways it simply couldn’t have at home. I reenacted some of the tamer scenes from In Bruges on a trip to Belgium, and made some awful puns in the south of France (I couldn’t help myself, the weather was just so “Nice”). Memories of bike rides along picturesque canals and picnics in verdant parks remind me that I’m incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to go abroad.
Nevertheless, I’m not sure whether three and a half months in Strasbourg was the most worthwhile use of the fall of my junior year—and not just because it caused me to miss a visit to campus from my favorite actor/rapper/person, Donald Glover. Rather, it is because between sporadic bursts of excitement at the occasional adventure, I felt a general listlessness that I attribute in large part to my near-complete intellectual idleness.
“Another Georgetown overachiever,” you’re probably sighing, right? Let me assure you that I’m not writing this for the alumni newsletter. In fact, I never thought I’d be the kid who missed school. I complain about Our Esteemed University as much as Jack DeGioia’s most dedicated critics do, as I try in vain to make the time I spend actually studying in Lau equal the time I spend procrastinating at Midnight MUG.
Still, though it might be hard to see the big picture as we juggle papers, presentations, and lab reports, in the end, aren’t we all at Georgetown because we have ambition, because we see ourselves doing big things in the not-so-distant future, or because deep down, we really do love a good challenge? Few institutions lay out the expectations for exchange program participants that Georgetown does for its full-time students. This has its advantages—ample time for travel being one of them—but for me it proved to be the shortcoming of my semester abroad. Somehow, in all those hours of OIP orientation, nobody ever oriented me to the fact that, for something like three-quarters of my waking hours in Strasbourg, I would have no responsibilities. This is partly a consequence of France’s seeming aversion to homework, but also something to which I suspect students in other host countries can relate. And for me, it was totally incomprehensible that nearly four months of (let’s face it) sightseeing, clubbing, and pretending to study was meant not only to satisfy me, but to constitute a meaningful and transformative broadening of my horizons.
Though I’m a jaded study abroad returnee now, back in early September I was fresh out of an inspiring summer teaching job. I wanted nothing more than to keep learning and talking about social justice and public education, and I even flirted briefly with the idea of backing out of my study abroad plans to do it. But the zealous members of the Georgetown Study Abroad Fan Club (SAC recognition pending) had me convinced that going to Strasbourg would be a truly irreplaceable experience. Instead, my semester there left me feeling stifled and useless in an environment where I couldn’t pursue my goals.
Naturally, my critiques don’t apply to all study abroad programs; I have even heard of students who find they are so overwhelmed with work that they barely have time to enjoy the culture around them. On the other hand, I know plenty of students who name their time overseas as their best semester yet. But I would encourage other students to consider that a semester at a foreign university is not the only way to taste life off the Hilltop, as a wise friend reminded me a bit late. Independent travel, volunteer work, a job abroad, or even an OIP summer program could have helped me approach my dream of fluency in French, without leaving me regretting a semester not used to the fullest.
Furthermore, we should strive for a more balanced presentation of the experience of studying abroad. In a sea of students waxing lyrical about their days in Buenos Aires, Melbourne, and Beijing, some less enthusiastic returnees can feel subject to a certain shame that is an inadvertent but unfortunate consequence of Georgetown’s intensely pro-study abroad culture. But not enjoying a semester away from campus is no reflection on a student’s openness, maturity, worldliness, or any other qualities. For the sake of Hoyas considering a semester abroad, and for that of returnees themselves, we should welcome, not suppress, differences of experience and opinion.
I don’t mean to tell you, underclassmen, that your semester abroad won’t be all you dream it can be. On the contrary, if you do decide to go, I hope sincerely that it is. But contemplate the matter thoroughly first, and make sure that you are the one who is making the decision to study abroad.
