During the second semester of my third year of college, I was fortunate enough to be invited to study abroad in Tuscany, Italy for 4 months to study Italian and participate in an intensive physical theatre program alongside 27 other students. From January to April 2022, I was in classes for 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week working on devising, storytelling, vocal technique, clowning, Commedia dell’Arte and practicing my Italian while living in a cliffside villa overlooking the town of Arezzo. The program, which was hosted by the Accademia dell’Arte and endorsed by Muhlenberg, offered authentic Italian cuisine cooked by a world-renowned chef, classes taught by artists who have toured globally sharing their craft and the opportunity to immerse oneself in a new culture whose main language is not native to me. When I wasn’t in classes, I was taking trips to the local town to practice my Italian or traveling to other places in Italy such as Rome, Florence, Ravenna, and Bologna to explore museums, try out new restaurants and bond with my peers in environments we got to explore for the first time together. During my breaks while abroad, I traveled to various other countries including Bosnia, Croatia, The Netherlands, Scotland, and Ireland and tried to learn as much about each culture as possible. The biggest challenge for me occurred when I was in countries whose native language was not English as most people I encountered could not understand English so I had to try my best to speak to them in a language they could understand. Because of this, I became pretty comfortable understanding and translating Italian and I tried to speak it as much as possible. My growing proficiency was due in part to the fact that some of my classes were taught only in Italian and so I needed to be able to understand the language enough to translate what my instructor was teaching for both myself and my classmates. This pushed me completely out of my comfort zone but also helped me become skilled at reading body language, comprehending social cues and being in situations where my main form of communication virtually disappeared. I started to appreciate the history and societal norms of other countries more and learned that I love to travel and want to immerse myself in every culture I come across. In my theatrical classes, I discovered that I am much stronger than I think I am and I can overcome great obstacles by having faith in myself and my abilities and a little help from some good friends. All in all, my experience helped me grow into a more open-minded, curious, and adventurous person who is eager to continue exploring the world during this next chapter of my life.

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