Lessons from Study Away: Julia Weeks

Jovanna and I at the top of St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest

It was really hard to choose which stories from my interviews to include in this post, but I think the ones recounted below do the best at characterizing me and how my personality has changed over the course of this semester.

My roommate, Jovanna, told a lot of stories about our time travelling over Spring Break together. We had a really tight schedule and were running around all of eastern Europe trying to see all the sites and still make it to each of our connecting trains and air planes. The story she dwelled on most was the time we had to navigate the Budapest public bus system at night on our way home from the thermal baths. We barely had anything on us, only one back pack between us that was filled with snacks, towels, and minimal amounts of money. We were told by a group of people at the baths that the last bus was leaving in five minutes and the stop was about a three minute walk down the block and around the corner. We started running. Right as we turned the corner, we saw the bus pulling away from the bus stop. Thats when Jovanna started freaking out saying, "we are stranded on the outskirts of the city for the night!" and hypothesising about all of the horrible things that were going to happen to us out at night. Instead of indulging in her freak out, I grabbed her arm and walked her to the closest main street. We didn't really know where we were in relation to our hostel and once we made it to a busier road, this became more apparent. Cue another Jovanna hyperventilation moment. I started walking quickly down the road in the direction I knew most likely to be toward our hostel. The first cab I saw, which happened to be after ten minutes of walking, I flagged down and asked to give us a ride to our hostel. He laughed at me and point further down the sidewalk in the direction we were walking and said, "Turn right at that stoplight and you will be there. No need for a cab." I had somehow remembered the location of our hostel and got us there with little help.

Jovanna says she likes this story because she think it exemplifies the "Israeli mindset" in me. Typically, they are very practical people. This means, when something goes wrong the usual response is something like, "Oh well. S**t happens," and they begin to think about their next options. There is little worrying about the future or fretting about the past. While I haven't really been aware of this until Jovanna pointed it out, I do think I have relaxed a bit while being abroad in Israel. Things that used to stress me out now fly through my thoughts effortlessly because I cannot control the outcome one way or the other.

My friend Adam recounted another story. He talked about how he has noticed that I am constantly outside, even in the 100 degree, dry weather of the desert. He said that especially, he noticed that I take my class breaks under the tree outside of our classrooms while everyone else crowds inside around the water cooler. "Weeks, I think this defines you as being free, or wanting to be as free as possible in all instances." Again, I didn't really realize this fact about myself until he brought it up, but he isn't wrong. I would much rather prefer to be outside whenever possible. I also think that this has been heightened in me by being in the desert. The landscape and climate is so different from what I am used to back home that I feel the need and the desire to soak it all in while I can. It will be over soon, sadly.

The main lesson that I gained from this blog post is that this experience has changed me in more ways than I can realize on my own. It is good to gain perspective from my peers to evaluate my character.