Barnard here, Barnard there…

Kateri and me enjoying the summertime

I just recently received another e-mail from my friend, Kateri, a junior here at Barnard. Kateri is studying abroad in Spain this semester, so her lengthy accounts of her experiences during Carnival and Holy Week, as well as details about her travels to Portugal, Amsterdam, and Italy keep me in the loop about her life in Sevilla and beyond. Plus whenever our time zones converge, we also get a good G-Chat conversation going. Confession: I show off about all the cool things she’s missing on campus…just to make sure she misses us! I know she’s been having the time of her life but that she’ll be happy to be back for her senior year. Kateri and I met just this past summer. I had seen her around campus a few times (who can forget that crazy curly hair of hers!) and knew she worked in the College Activities Office (CAO), where we can buy discount tickets to Broadway shows, the Opera, the Ballet, Yankees/Mets or Knicks games, and to the movies. Last summer, I received an Alum-sponsored Internship Grant from the Barnard Office of Career Development, which included a stipend and FREE HOUSING for the summer. I lugged my stuff to my summer room in Elliott Hall and there I found Kateri – my summer Residential Assistant (RA). Her room was right next door to mine so we helped each other get up early for a run through Riverside Park before we headed to our internships (hers at Star Magazine, mine at Sesame Street Magazine). We found ourselves in a new friendship that developed quickly over the hot summer months. So now it’s a little sad to know that since she’s abroad and I’m graduating, Fall 2007 was the last time we were Barnard students together. Part of me wishes Kateri hadn’t studied abroad and that she was here so I could enjoy my last semester with her by my side. But then I remembered my own time abroad and thought “wow, that’s so selfish…she should definitely be right where she is!” I decided that even if it means that my friends aren’t close by, everyone should think about having a study abroad experience. I’m certainly glad I did!

Study abroad is very popular among Barnard students. We have to show mastery in the language spoken in the country we want to live in (4 semesters of courses or equivalent through placement test). My family is from Brazil, so I speak Portuguese, and I studied five years of Spanish in HS; therefore, I always thought I would go to Brazil, Portugal, Spain, or a Latin American country for my time abroad. Once I arrived at Barnard, I decided that I wanted to start a new language (I was exempt from the 4 semesters because of my AP test scores). I chose Italian and after 4 semesters of it, I was ready to go to Europe for the first time! I had always known I wanted to study abroad…but honestly, it was still a difficult decision to make. Being in another country meant NOT being at Barnard. The idea of not being here for a whole semester, for me personally, was crazy. It meant missing the traditions that I looked forward to every semester or year like Midnight Breakfast or Big Sub (see juliemalyn’s 4/1 entry). But I was determined to go, so I chose a summer study abroad program in Florence, Italy. My program was through Vanderbilt University, so most of the students were not from Barnard or Columbia. Lucky me though – my friend Emma Cothren (also BC ‘08), whom I had met in my first semester at Barnard in Elementary Italian I, also wanted to study abroad over the summer and with that same program! Off we went, during Summer 2006 to sweat in the streets of Italy like no other.

Once we arrived, Emma and I found ourselves in a small residential villa right outside of the center of Florence. We took Advanced Italian, Renaissance Art History & Architecture, and an Italian Culture course through our program and – my favorite – traveled all over the country. Since we were only there for 7 or 8 weeks and I had never been to Europe, I decided to dedicate my limited number of weekends to getting to know as much of Italy as possible. We visited Venice, Lucca, Bologna, Cinque Terre, and Pisa together. I went to Rome on my own and then our program set up trips for us to visit Siena during the Palio horse races and also Taormina in Sicily. Emma and I also took a 4-hour train ride to Naples, where we only stayed for about 3 hours…just enough time to get a slice of the original pizza! OH! And how could I forget that we were there during the World Cup?!? I’m a Brazilian in blood and at heart, but as soon as they were out of the running, I joined my neighbors and became an Italy fan. Being in Florence the night they won the World Cup is something I cannot forget. Wow, we seriously had some of my best times ever.

Looking back on my study abroad experience, I am so happy that I decided to go and take such a big step without my family. At the same time, it was SO nice to be in a strange place with someone I knew as a friend and who also shared my prior experiences with me, both academically and socially. When I think of Italy, I think of how much I grew and developed as an individual during my time abroad. Barnard offers me a lot of experiences, both academically and socially. I realized, as a rising junior, that what Barnard contributed to my abroad experience was the feeling of being in a foreign city and not feeling like a foreigner. Barnard prepared me for this experience through Italian class and the Study Abroad Dean’s guidance, of course. But what it gave me that doesn’t translate on paper is the confidence to explore and the curiosity to question that colored my days in Italy and made me get the most out of my experience. During those few weeks I learned so much about what I value in life and who I am. I found myself, in many ways. Having Emma with me reminded me of how where we come from really influences who we are. She and I were partners in crime as we trekked all over that Italian cobblestone. And now that we’ve been back in NYC for over a year, she and I still talk and laugh about our days in the Mediterranean sunshine, our sweaty and mosquito-y hostel experiences, the most delicious food ever, and the friends we made along the way. We’re on our way to leaving Barnard and enterig “adulthood.” But just like I know that my Barnard experience helped me enjoy and succeed in Italy, I know that it will do the same for me in life. What I learn here now will be with me forever and I feel like a better and more complete person for it.

So thanks Barnard. You have helped me become the me that I want to be.

First day in Florence near Ponte Vecchio with Emma

Emma and me on Mt. Etna in Taormina, Sicily the day before it erupted!

Emma and me in Venice