Estefanie – Italy

May 13, 2023

Where to begin… the opportunity to be able to go on this trip is one that I have been waiting for since I first came to ECU. I was assigned to go on a similar trip before COVID hit us and everything shut down. Before I even began to pack my first though was “is my suitcase to big, no wait it’s to small ughhh.” Well, I finally decided on a suitcase and began to pack my bags. One of the first things I packed was my universal charger (I want to be able to do my hair in Italy LOL). After I moved on to clothing now- this- took FOREVERRR because obliviously I couldn’t decide what outfits I wanted to include. One tip I would give when picking out clothing is look at the WEATHER (this is very important). Once I finally decided what outfits to pick, I started putting to the side the very important things (not that clothing isn’t) such as my passport, license, COVID vaccination card (just in case you never know) and chargers. One thing that I found that I feel like is going to help me is a bag that somewhat looks like a fanny pack, in this I put the most important items, like my passport just so that I have it close by. One thing that helped me through this process is one of the girls I met going on the same trip as me. We bounced ideas, outfits, suitcase sizes lol, and anything else you could think of. Although we might be told this repeatedly getting close to some of the people in your group can be a life saver and honestly, they could become one of your closest friends after words (so keep an open mind). If you have ever been thinking of going on a study, abroad TAKE THE LEAP, it’s only the beginning and I’m honestly the most excited I have ever been!