My Study Abroad Experience: Overview

By Victoria Robertson on January 27, 2015

Two weeks later, I’m back home reflecting on my study abroad trip to Fiji. And let me tell you, moving from the hot, Fijian sun to the cold, gloominess of Chicago was one of my least favorite transitions ever.

But weather aside, Fiji in itself was the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen. Everywhere you looked there was the most vibrant shades of green or blue, and even when it was stormy, you couldn’t help but think how gorgeous everything was.

Really, everywhere you turned there was a picturesque landscape waiting to be captured by a camera.

As I’m sure you can imagine, this scenery made every experience that much more incredible. Boat rides (even those lasting three hours) were phenomenal, hikes through the forest were unlike any I’d ever been on and water features were constant, whether it be beautiful waterfalls or ocean water so clear you could see the fish swimming around you with clarity.

This, of course, made our kayaking, zip lining and snorkeling adventures so incredible I’m not sure that any other place will ever be able to live up to it.

But I think my favorite parts of the trip were the ones that weren’t even planned.

Every so often, the group would get a free day. On these days we typically chose to stay together as a group and most of us chose to try activities we wouldn’t be able to do anywhere else.

On one of these days, a few girls and I chose to go horseback riding along the beach at Mango Bay Resort. We booked an hour long trip and assumed this would mean the horses would take us along the sandy shores and then back around to the hotel.

Instead, we got an hour long ride through the ocean, up through the forest and to a peak from which we could take in the beautiful view of the island. Our three Fijian guides struck up conversation with us and we ended up with more stories to tell than we thought was capable of happening in just an hour.

Other times, we would get the group to play a volleyball game against each other, or even invent games such as coconut rugby, which we played in the ocean at Uprising Resort. From just these little experiences, we became closer as a group and by the end of it were able to call each other friends.

To believe that this was the same group that was too quiet to talk to each other the first day of the trip is something I still can’t even fathom. But what I’d heard before the trip ended up being true: your fellow study abroad classmates will end up being some of the best friends you make in your college career. Even after only two weeks, I can see how this is true.

Of course, none of this is to downplay the actual coursework that took place while on the trip, as the planned excursions gave me enough memories to last a lifetime.

Before this trip, I’d never looked at hotels on an environmental basis, but after seeing the destruction big, conglomerate hotels can have on the Fijian ecosystem, it’s something I don’t think I’ll be able to overlook in the future.

I now find myself questioning hotels I’ve stayed at in the past in ways I hadn’t before, even in things as small as recycling or how these resorts along coasts are impacting the marine life around them.

Things such as this that were never of importance to me before are now constantly at the forefront of my attention, a takeaway from my trip that I wasn’t expecting in the least.

Overall, I’m proud of myself for venturing out and taking part in a trip that I never thought I would be able to be a part of. As an English major, I assumed the more experience I gained the better, and this is a decision I will be thanking myself for making for years to come.

I owe a lot to my study abroad experience, and I only wish I had more time to experience other countries I’d never had the ability to visit previously. But after the Fiji trip, I can’t help but think that I’ve opened the door to some amazing possibilities in the near future.

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