Just a few days into my study abroad experience, my Czech buddy Zdenek made a comment after Evan and I cooked one of our more ambitious dishes that perfectly sums up my experience this semester. We were surprised and excited about how well our cooking turned out and he simply said “The IKEA effect”. I had never heard of this before so I asked him for clarification, to which he responded, “It’s when you make something yourself instead of buying it already finished, it makes the whole thing more enjoyable.”
This idea stayed in my mind as we continued cooking and trying more and more things, but it has been at the front of my mind the past few weeks as I think about this past semester. Looking back, I have experienced more freedom than this past semester, from living on my own, to classes that challenged me creatively instead of sticking to a strict framework, to deciding how I wanted to explore Europe and even deciding how to spend the free time that I had in a foreign city. Unlike any other point in my life, I had the primary voice in these decisions.
The CMC Study Abroad Office, CET and FAMU all contributed the individual pieces that made up my experience, but it was up to me to decide how to combine them, how to spend my time and resources, and to tailor the experience so that I could get exactly what I wanted out of it. And like buying a bookshelf from IKEA, there were points of confusion, of looking at the directions and thinking to myself “how is this all going to come together?”, but it eventually did come together to produce a fantastic experience that has fundamentally changed how I experience the world. Knowing that I can live, and even thrive, in a foreign country where I can barely speak the language, is an achievement that I take pride in and relieves me when I think to the future beyond CMC.
Another unexpected lesson from this semester was experiencing an academic arrangement with a distinct separation between school and the rest of life. At CMC, I was on campus probably 95% of the time. For me, that meant that classes, homework, and even work followed me everywhere and was intermixed with every part of my day. That’s just the nature of a residential college with tough classes when you have a lot of commitments. But in Prague, going home to my apartment rather than my dorm room, shopping for groceries and cooking instead of sitting in Collins, and even taking the tram 20 minutes to class instead of walking to Kravis were all welcome respites. A residential setting certainly has its advantages, sure, but, as talking with friends in the program from other schools across the US showed me, it’s not the norm. It is also not what ‘real life’ will be like after graduation. I know that once I return to Claremont, I will try to create at least one space that gives me this separation where I escape CMC for a few minutes a day just to clear my head.
As you can tell, this semester was very introspective for me. Perhaps that is not the primary goal of study abroad which is focused on cultural emersion, but I think it would be dishonest to say that I’ve truly learned enough about Czech culture during this short time to make any broad sweeping claims. What I have experienced, however, are many meaningful interactions with Czechs, and people from all over the world, that have given me a glimpse into different perspectives. From talking with bunkmates in hostels, my Airbnb hosts, and other strangers along the way, I have been amazed by the sheer diversity of opinions and experiences that exist. The final, perhaps most meaningful lesson I am taking away from this experience is one that I think is often overlooked and, from time to time, discouraged at CMC. Simply listening to someone’s personal experiences, especially in regards to things you think you a lot about, is one of the best ways to absorb new information. I think we too often see ourselves as experts because we read books and essays, study data and spreadsheets, and even listen to our professors. But this approach can leave out any information from the people actually confronting the issues we study.
The best example of this that gave me this idea was chatting with a German family from Berlin in a shuttle from Kitzbuhel to Salzburg in Austria about the refugee crisis and the state of the EU. The two parents are self-described liberals and lawyers with three very well-behaved kids that I’m sure will do big things one day. They talked about the duty that Europeans, and Americans as well, had to help these refugees fleeing the terrible violence, about how their core beliefs lead them to support the initial acceptance of hundreds of thousands of refugees. However, they also described first-hand how the refugee center that was setup in their neighborhood has drastically changed their community, how their children can no longer participate in their favorite sports because the recreation center has been converted into temporary housing, and how the joblessness already facing Berliners has only been exacerbated leaving thousands without any income and becoming homeless. Their initial stance of supporting the refugee efforts has changed to being much more skeptical and unsure that the country can handle the strain.
This perspective forced me to think much more deeply about the refugee crisis and about these large-scale issues as a whole. It is never as simple as weighing the argument and the counterargument and presenting evidence on both sides. There are gritty details that we often overlook when we receive information only from academics who are themselves removed from the situation that can only be described by those facing them in their daily life. I could fill pages with similar interactions I had that have made me rethink my positions on everything from Islamophobia to healthcare. In short, I have learned as much about myself this semester as I have about any culture, and I have also been exposed to numerous perspectives that will continue to shape how I see the world.