By: Grace Carballo ‘17

Before you go abroad this spring, you’re probably feeling nervous and excited, and maybe a little worried about leaving USC and your friends there behind. All of these are completely normal emotions, and as you learned in your Overseas Studies Orientation, there will inevitably times where you feel homesick not only for your family, but for your Trojans and the familiarity and comfort USC has offered you all these semesters.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

For all those who have studied abroad and those who are welcoming home loved ones who were abroad, it is important to recognize that reverse culture shock is a very real phenomenon; it takes time and patience to readjust to life back in the U.S.

By: Judy Lee ‘17

If you’re studying abroad, you’ve got to be strategic this holiday season! Here are some things you can keep in mind in case someone asks you what you’d like this year:

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

I’m in Matagalpa now which is super cool compared to Managua, both in terms of climate and also just in terms of the general vibes it projects. I’m working on my ISP which stands for Independent Study Project, emphasis on the independent.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

It’s been far too long since I’ve posted and I’m not really sure where to begin exactly, but drawing from The Sound of Music, let’s start from the very beginning, the beginning is the place to start.

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

In addition to my amazing host mom and rad, artsy, vegetarian host sister, I also have a super cool host brother who is a little older than me, here in Madrid. The mysterious man I stumbled upon in my new house the very first day I moved in turned out to be who he said he was and now we see each other all the time. Carmen explained to me when I asked what Victor does that he was a “go-go”, which I didn’t understand, but with a bit more pantomiming on her part, some hip thrusts and the like, I gathered means “dancer employed in a club.”

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

I would just like to take the time to thank all the great inventors and big dreamers out there who made the world what it is today. Without you folks, I would have no choice but to continuously be at a loss for words with my host family’s hairless cats as my only companions.

By: Emily Young MA ‘16

As an athlete, one thing I didn’t have an opportunity to do at USC was spend a semester abroad. USC has so many fantastic global programs and judging by friend’s first-hand accounts, blogs, Instagram posts, and Snapchats, it seems like the time of your life. Luckily, with fund raising and support from the athletic administration and donors, I received the opportunity to travel with the USC Sand Volleyball Team on the program’s first-ever European Tour!

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

As I sit amongst my possessions in the beautifully chaotic metamorphosis from unpacking to repacking, I feel mildly overwhelmed by just how much I still have to do before I leave for Madrid on Saturday. I take comfort, however, in knowing that I have already survived finals so I’m probably immune to stress at this point and that I have compiled a very thorough To Do list with the help of those who studied abroad before me and the Internet community as a whole.