Hi! My name is Aiden Abeles-Tierney and I am currently a junior at the University of Maryland. I am majoring in General Communications and minoring in General Business and this semester I am studying abroad in Florence, Italy. I chose to apply to study at the International Studies Institute in Florence for my study abroad experience because it was highly recommended by many friends from UMD as well as other universities. After receiving my acceptance letter, the more information I got from the ISI board, the more I knew I made the right decision as they were extremely supportive, organized, and informative! I have had a wonderful experience during my time in Florence and could not have asked for a better affiliative program to go through!
My favorite memory:
I would absolutely have to say that one of my favorite memories of my abroad experience has been from a weekend when I chose to stay in Florence. When I decided to study abroad, I told myself that, as tempting as it is to travel every weekend, make sure to reserve some weekends to explore the wonders of the city of Florence. The Boboli Gardens have become one of my favorite places to visit either with friends or alone. My favorite memory has to be one Saturday when two of my friends and I took blankets, a speaker, snacks, watercolors, books, and our travel journals and spent the entire day lounging in the gardens. We spent over 5 hours in the gardens just relaxing, reading, listening to music, and creating art. Something about this experience felt so fulfilling and gave me this feeling of warmth and happiness. It is one of my favorite days I have spent abroad so far.
Advice for future students:
I have two pieces of advice for future students: the first one being more logistical and the second, more inspirational. First, if you choose to study abroad in the spring semester, you should visit all the tourist attractions on your list when you first arrive. From personal experience, I came into the semester with the idea that I would have the entire four months to explore and adventure everything I wanted to within Florence. However, as the weather gets nicer, I have found that the number of tourists drastically increases by the day and most attractions are sold out or take hours to access. The second piece of advice I would give future students is to trust your gut! This applies to all situations and scenarios especially while studying abroad, however, I specifically am talking about following your intuition to have all of the experiences you are specifically looking for. It is easy to get caught up in what everyone around you is doing and to feel the need to have certain experiences, but at the end of the day, you will feel most fulfilled and inspired by following your gut and pushing yourself to do the things you truly want to do.