Been around the block FSU Valencia students relive their travel experiences
By Savannah Tindall
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alm, cool, and collected, Florida State University student Claire Chiarotti confidently hands the airport security personnel her U.S. passport. He opens it and stamps “SPAIN,” adding another country in the book. The stamp is next to Japan and Germany, two countries she once called home. Growing up with a parent in the military introduced Chiarotti to many different cultures around the world, which inspired countless hours of Chiarotti applying for and planning her study abroad trip. Once she is in Valencia’s city center, she walks around the arches of the Torres de Serranos. Chiarotti smiles as she takes in her new, temporary home, seeing that her hard work paid off. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, FSU student Amber Cumiskey is shakily boarding an airplane alone for the first time. She texts her parents—her biggest supporters for studying abroad in Spain during the 2019 spring semester—and lets them know that she got on OK. Traveling without her family for the first time, Cumiskey sits down in her seat next to strangers and peers out the window, anxiously awaiting her first-ever sights of Europe. When she finally lands, she is surrounded by the unknown, but when she enters her apartment she sees a familiar face: Chiarotti, her best friend.
30 Nomadic Noles // Summer 2019
With Cumiskey’s trip anxiety out of the way, the two have the best three months of their lives. “These memories and moments are so precious to me because they helped me to establish roots going forth with my 20s,” Cumiskey says. While previous travel can fuel some students’ dreams of studying abroad, such as Chiarotti’s experiences, the same can be said of the reverse. Cumiskey’s curiosity to venture into the unknown drove her to apply to Valencia’s study abroad program. “Not traveling abroad made me want to study abroad even more since studying in another country for a whole semester is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Cumiskey says. Whether or not students have previous travel experience, traveling to other places once they are at their study abroad location opens up completely new experiences for some students because of their newfound freedom. No longer do they have to double-check their plans with their family. Instead, they set the terms for what activities they are doing, who they are going with, and where they are going. Not only did students interviewed for this article enjoyed the freedom they experienced during their independent traveling, Chiarotti adds, “traveling is a form of education that in and of itself is a
2 teacher that continuously teaches someone a lesson long after the experience is over.” Now more than ever, independent travel is a fixture of the study abroad experience, regardless of students’ prior travel experience. While Cumiskey did some traveling with just her best friend, they typically traveled with their roommates Travis Ward, Colton Herrmann, and Michael Carll. And even though Cumiskey’s previous travel experience was minimal, she quickly found her footing and was planning trips both inside and outside of Spain not only for herself but also for her entire group of friends. After nights of planning and one flight later, she and her friends arrived in Dublin, Ireland, and had such a good time that she is planning on returning to the country in a year. Students who participate in a study
