I still don’t quite believe it, but in about one week, I will be on a plane touching down in Turkey to spend the first semester of my senior year studying in Istanbul.

It will be my first time spending more than two weeks outside the U.S., and I know that no amount of speculation will quite prepare me for what my experience spending four months living in Turkey will be like.

This amazing opportunity comes hot on the heels of another one, though. I think that, in some ways, spending the summer interning in New York City has helped prepare me to jet off to Europe.

I’ve never lived in a major metropolis before, so New York City felt almost like a foreign country at first. There were so many creative, interesting people of all different nationalities doing so many wonderful, bizarre and beautiful things. The city has such a unique rhythm — a vibe I’d never fully understood until I lived there.

New York City helped whet my sense of adventure. It’s easy to utilize every opportunity when possibilities include the same carousel of options each weekend: the bane of summer living in a small town. In New York City, however, there’s always something new going on. I learned that napping is rarely worth it, even Tuesday nights deserve excitement, and the silly, spontaneous or unexpected escapades often end up being the most memorable.

By not passing up any opportunities, I found myself breaking free from the subway to cotton-candy skies at 5 a.m., getting stomach cramps from laughing too hard at a late-night comedy show, sprawling on blankets with wine and fruit at outdoor movie screenings, and playing Frisbee under the stars in Washington Square Park. In Istanbul, there will be many new places to explore, and I plan to try, see and do as many new things as possible.

My summer in the city also reminded me what it’s like to be without a car. In Istanbul, the number of traffic related fatalities is high — drivers are known for being reckless even in heavy traffic. I won’t be driving, so public transportation and my own feet will be my only means of getting around. After spending my junior year in Syracuse cruising around at my leisure, though, I learned the joys of automobile freedom this summer.

When I first got to New York City, the mapped subway routes looked like alphabet soup and I had new blisters popping up — and popping — every day, even when I was wearing what I thought were my comfortable walking shoes. Repetition and, admittedly, a few memorable mistakes, eventually rendered me a subway goddess. I realized the magic of being able to get anywhere for only $2.50 and never needing a designated driver.

Like I’ll have to do in Turkey, I spent the summer learning a new language. As an intern for Inc., a magazine focused on small business and entrepreneurship, I had a whole new lexicon to master. Gradually, I stopped stumbling over IPOs, Series A funding rounds and revolving credit loans, mainly because I became really comfortable asking my supervisors a million questions.

Sure, learning business lingo isn’t really comparable to learning Turkish, but I hope that getting used to asking for help with a smile will come in handy when living with my Turkish hosts.

So although it’s been strange seeing my friends getting into the swing of things again at SU, I’m so excited for what’s ahead, and I feel more confident now about my ability to thrive (and survive) in another country than I did before my summer in the city.

If only I didn’t still have to pack.

Jillian D’Onfro is a senior magazine journalism and information management and technology dual major. She can be reached at jidonfro@syr.edu.

 

Published on August 28, 2012 at 12:54 am