{"id":1794,"date":"2023-09-13T03:36:16","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T03:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/?p=1794"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:12:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:12:23","slug":"amherst-ma-arrival-update-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/2023\/09\/13\/amherst-ma-arrival-update-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Amherst, MA — Arrival Update #2: Aarah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone!\u00a0 I am now in Amherst and let me just say it was quite the journey <\/span>to get here.\u00a0 Before landing in Boston I could see from the plane window that I was definitely in a different part of the country.\u00a0 When I stepped outside from the airport I immediately felt that it was colder and not nearly as humid as back home.\u00a0 I noticed in the parking garage that every five seconds someone was blaring their horn, angry at other drivers.\u00a0 Once I got in the rental car I could see why, the traffic was horrible.\u00a0 As we made our way to the more rural town that I live in now, I saw that the landscape was not that much different from Arkansas.\u00a0 Yes, the mountains were smaller, the dirt wasn\u2019t red, and the trees seemed to hang in a sad winter-like way, but other than that if I hadn\u2019t been paying attention I could have mistaken it for home.<\/p>\n

Being separated from my family, friends, and familiar way of life has taught me a lo<\/span>t about myself already.\u00a0 It has instilled what I\u2019ve felt like I\u2019ve already known for a long time, which is that I like my independence and I enjoy change.\u00a0 I find having a new life is exciting and I\u2019m already planning out my next adventure once this one ends.\u00a0 However, even though I am loving it here, that doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t miss aspects of my life back home, the main one being the people I\u2019m closest with.<\/p>\n

I find that every relationship I have made here s<\/span>o far has been uncomplicated.\u00a0 It’s very easy to talk to others and have made a good number of friends so far.\u00a0 I have learned a lot from the other study abroad students (mostly Dutch students because that is the nationality of my roommate) and have enjoyed learning about where they come from.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the culture up here is as different as I had previously believed it to be. The differences I have found have been little to none.<\/p>\n

The system of education up here has be<\/span>en amazing.\u00a0 They are very thorough with their teachings and encourage a lot of self-discovery and thought.\u00a0 A difference I\u2019ve noticed from this campus compared to home is the push for students to know one another.\u00a0 I have been required to introduce myself to each person in almost all my classes, which I appreciate since before I knew almost nobody here.<\/p>\n

My expectations of life and the school that I would experience up h<\/span>ere have been exceedingly met.\u00a0 The people are as nice as can be, and I\u2019ve already made more friends in two weeks than I thought I would make all semester.\u00a0 The professors are personable and find time to get to know me and my situation as much as they can.\u00a0 It is safe to say that I made the right choice and can\u2019t wait for the year to come.<\/p>\n

-Aarah <3<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone!\u00a0 I am now in Amherst and let me just say it was quite the journey to get here.\u00a0 Before landing in Boston I could see from the plane window that I was definitely in a different part of the country.\u00a0 When I stepped outside from the airport I immediately felt that it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":1804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-1794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atuglobal","tag-arkansastechuniversity","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/files\/2023\/09\/unnamed-12.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1794"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1874,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1794\/revisions\/1874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.atu.edu\/studyabroad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}