When reflecting on finding community during this trip, I am met with nothing but fond memories. Going into this experience, one of my biggest stressors was meeting the other people on my trip. I am a strong believer in the fact that the group of people you experience something with can make or break an opportunity, and I can confidently say my Romania group, including our professor Dr. Horia Dijmarescu, made my trip 100x better. From our group dinner the first night, mere hours after landing in Bucharest, I was instantly at ease with the group. Later that night, we all hung out my hotel room and got to know one another, and I knew that these were people I could be completely myself around.
Our professor Horia also became an integral part of our study abroad group. One of my favorite things about Horia is his ability to quickly bounce from academic mode to fun mode, and back again. I loved sitting near Horia during meals and having discussions about the meetings we had attended that day. I felt that having Horia, a native Romanian who knows so much about the culture and political system, greatly enriched my experience in country. Horia and our tour guide in Transylvania, Alin, acted as translators, tour guides, and helpers at every turn, giving us what I believed was the most immersive experience possible without knowing the language.
Getting close with my peers on my trip, as well as our professor, gave me the confidence to branch out and meet people in country as well. During our time in Bucharest, we had a few scheduled social events with students from the University of Bucharest’s political science department. I enjoyed going to these events very much because I found that despite being from different cultures and living halfway around the world from each other, we were quite connected to our peers from Bucharest through media, music, shopping, hobbies, etc. Getting to build these connections across the cultures was one of the coolest parts of the program for me.
When I think back to my time in Romania in the future, one of my most resonant memories will always be all the amazing time I shared with the twelve other students in my group. These twelve were truly like my family for the five weeks I was in country, and I could not have asked for a better group of people to experience Romania and Belgium with. For those planning on studying abroad, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to build connections with your study abroad group. It is so special you get to have this once in a lifetime experience together!