Growing up, my mom was constantly talking about how much her study abroad experience changed her life. She spent her entire senior year of college traveling, gaining work experience and just learning about herself. My dad never got the chance to study abroad, and regrets not traveling when he was a young adult, but has since made up for it. Moral of the story is that nothing has shaped my parents lives’ more than traveling, so when the opportunity arose for a summer semester in Portugal, there wasn’t much of a decision. I knew I had to go, and I knew it would be an eye opening experience that really pushed me out of my comfort zone.

One of the biggest factors into choosing Lisbon was the work experience I would be gaining through the internship placement, but there was also the excitement of just being abroad in Europe, and the idea I had both of Portugal and of Europe as a whole. I think my expectations going into something like study abroad was the magic surrounding it, the idea that you can create your own life in a city across the world, meet all kinds of people and sort of be whoever you wanted. Realistically after being here for a bit, I know that that isn’t necessarily the most accurate, but the excitement remains regardless.

I think the funniest culture shock I noticed within the first hour of being in Lisbon was that they drive on the same side of the road as we do in America. I had the expectation going in that it would be opposite, like how it is in the UK but it was not, and that felt oddly comforting, especially in a brand new environment and so far from home.

Im also realizing through the beginnings of my work experience that there is a definite honor of work life balance in that there is very obvious and important separation. You are not expected to bring your laptop and do work when you are on your lunch break, and it is not uncommon for lunch breaks to last longer than an hour. There is also no expectation to work on work after hours, respond to emails, and your time off is honored as such.

I have been thankful and lucky to have connected with people from my program and have common ground with Pitt, and that has created a sense of comfort and belonging overseas. I also have been fortunate to been able to bond with my research team with talk of the political state of the world, comparisons between the United States and Portugal. I am working in the School of Social Science at the University of Lisbon, so there has been a lot of good natured questions and curiosity surrounding my experience.

There is such a sense of community and reliance on the areas around you, which I really appreciate. I use my digital camera all the time, but I left my charger for the battery at home and none of my friends had compatible chargers. My gut instinct of course was to just order the part off of Amazon. A quick search however confirmed that I would have to pay over 40 euro for a part I know only really costs around 6-11 USD. So, I had to go out to a camera shop and ask for help to see if they had the part I needed. I also think that there is something to be said about the culture in Portugal of going out in the community to find whatever you need instead of the convenience of just ordering everything online. I’m sure tariffs play a huge role in this, but I digress.

In terms of leadership, I have always been taught to lead by example, and to never not be willing to do the work you are asking others to contribute to, so I think that has bled into many areas of my life. I know I do need to be more assertive in what I want and expect from people, as well as ask for help when I am struggling instead of trying to power through things.

Transparently, I started blogging this trip for my friends and family separate from this Honors Blog, mostly giving little recaps and sending my favorite photos that I have taken etc. This started before I realized I would be posting a lot of the same content, so there will be a lot of crossposting happening from Substack to here.