Hi! My name is Lydia and I am going into my final year of my Modern Languages (French and Italian) degree. I have just returned from my year abroad having spent the first semester in Lyon, France and the second in Florence, Italy.  As one would probably imagine, my most memorable language and cultural experiences have come from my year abroad. But for me, it’s incredibly difficult to condense my whole year abroad onto one small page. From seeing the most breath-taking locations, to making the most beautiful friendships, I didn’t know there was so much you could fit into one year. However rather than looking at the big trips or days out I had, I started to realise how much I appreciated the little things during my time abroad. 

My year abroad started off at 4am, Manchester Airport, Terminal 1. Scared, lacking confidence in my language ability in the real world, and not ready to embark on my first flight alone. Hindsight really is a beautiful thing. I wish I could go back and tell myself how beautifully the next year of my life was about to play out. If I wanted to, I could write thousands of words on my first week in Lyon, and how I tried to cram everything humanly possible into my first week out of fear of wasting my time abroad (not the game plan I’d choose if I did it again!), but that would be redundant. After my first week, I tried to slow down and see the beauty in the usually mundane things, my walk to university, my weekly shop, doing my laundry, the things I would normally take for granted, but now it was new and exciting because I got to do it in a different country! Yes, while on year abroad there are big occasions, for me they were things like trips to Montpellier or celebrating the Fête des Lumières in a wintery Lyon, but for me it really was the little things that made it, this whole realisation that I was immersed in this whole different way of life.

In Italy I experienced this all over again. I took ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ quite literally (other than spending most my time in Florence). I wanted to follow the Italian way of life, whether that was a late-morning espresso, or the ritual of an evening aperitivo, I wanted to do it all. I wanted to eat all the authentic Tuscan food and go out my comfort zone – I came back being unable to eat a meal without a handful of olives first and loving Tuscan crostini despite swearing my whole life I hated pâté. For me, this is what makes my year abroad the most memorable language or cultural experience I’ve had, all the little things that I’ve learnt and all the new things I tried that added up to make me who I am today and be able to recount this today.

My year abroad ended the exact same way it started, 8pm, Manchester Airport, Terminal 1. But now I was feeling fulfilled, more self-assured, and grateful. Though it may be a cliché, I truly believe I finally understand what people mean when they say travel makes them grow and understand themselves more as a person. I am so incredibly grateful that I am privileged enough to be able to seize these amazing opportunities with both hands and create these life-long memories. And my year abroad has left me thinking, what can my next memorable experience be?

Lydia Brindley