I’m back! It has been a whirlwind past-seven-months, where I was in Madrid for four months, followed by one in my hometown of San Francisco, followed by two months in Hong Kong for an internship sponsored by the United Methodist Church, and then back. I visited so many places, learned so many things, and I am completely at a loss whenever people ask me how my summer/abroad experience was.
The first thing I want to say (and the thing I say most often) is “It was amazing! It was phenomenal! Oh my God I loved it!” This is absolutely true. I’ve said for a while that I split my time between the two best cities on earth (San Francisco and Boston), and now I can add two more cities to that. I truly felt an instant connection with Madrid, and although it took a bit longer, I love Hong Kong as well. I had more unique, culturally challenging experiences in a short period of time than many people have in their entire lives. I met amazing people, ate amazing food, did amazing things, and did everything I was “supposed” to do abroad.
However, sometimes I find myself answering with, “It was amazing, but difficult and lonely at times”. Both Madrid and Hong Kong were difficult in their own way. When I was in Madrid, I felt like I was ripped away from my faith community right as I found my place at the chapel. I experimented a little with different churches, but I was not comfortable worshipping in Spanish yet, and the Catholic culture in Spain is very different from what I am comfortable with stateside. I sort of gave up the search early because what I really want was to just be back at Marsh, and found myself only entering churches to see the architecture. Madrid was also difficult because although I met so many amazing people, I never really found the one group that I clicked with. All of my good friends were in other cities studying abroad, and although I never would’ve traded Madrid for anything, I just wish they were with me.
Hong Kong then presented its own challenges. I found a faith community that I loved, only to find out that my schedule would not allow me to worship there. I went to church more often, but it was a tradition that I am still finding my footing with, and I tripped a little. I made quite a few friends in Hong Kong, but HK’s culture was so foreign to me that I was exhausted almost every day from constant stimulation of “Asia’s World City”. I felt so small in that city, which had never happened to me before, and I felt lost. Often literally, because signage was unclear and in a different writing system, and figuratively, for much the same reason.
It is impossible to express all of this when somebody just asks me “How was abroad?” because I am so worried of coming off like a privileged brat who was ungrateful for his experience; I would not trade my last 9 months for the world. It clarified a lot for me in my vocation in ways that I am still processing, with the help of all my resources at the chapel. These experiences, as well as smaller trips I took to Italy, Morocco, and the Philippines, gave me a worldly perspective that now has transformed the way I look at the role of the Church in the world.
The one response I will always give when someone asks me about my experience is that they need to go abroad as well. Travelling abroad, and especially the experience of studying abroad, is life changing. The experience might not be “ideal”, but it will transform your perspective. And I’ve been bitten by the travel bug, so at least for me, I’m definitely going back!