Living in Luxembourg: Final moments

At the time of writing this column, I’ve been home from Europe for exactly one week. I’m sitting at my kitchen table, surrounded by the noise and bustle of family dinnertime. Initially, it had been my intention to write my fifth and final column on the eight-hour plane ride home in quiet solitude.

Evidently, those plans fell through.

Amidst the chaos of finals and packing up my apartment, I never found the time to sit down and write, which initially upset me. However, I could not be happier that life got in the way and forced me to wait.

In just one week of being home, I have felt more impacted by the experience of studying abroad than I ever did during the four months I was there.

Studying and living abroad for an extended time allowed me to appreciate the vastness of the world and the beauty of each country’s culture. My biggest concerns were figuring out where I would be traveling the next few weekends and booking corresponding flights and rooms. I got to try new foods, explore new cities and make new friends. My lifestyle was the most carefree it had ever been – and likely will be for the rest of my life.

I felt a specific type of gratitude throughout the semester; one that was so blatantly obvious it would be impossible to miss. How could I stare out at the Douro Valley in Portugal or into my reflection on Lake Brienz in Switzerland, and not feel grateful?

Since coming home, however, my appreciation has shifted into something more complex and nuanced. Small things that I took for granted before studying abroad now stick out to me as obviously as European views did.

The noise of my household surrounding me as I write no longer bothers me; I feel grateful to be immersed in the comfort of familiar voices. The traffic I sit in on the way to my favorite restaurants no longer irritates me; I feel grateful to drive again and treat myself to comfort foods.

I will say that walkable cities really do positively impact your lifestyle and is one of many things I will miss about Europe. Yet in the same vein, I appreciate the convenience of driving and how this became a developed culture in the U.S.

Both truths demonstrate how spending months away from home can produce seemingly opposing feelings, but I find this one of the most rewarding takeaways from studying abroad. If I had never left the country, I wouldn’t appreciate my current life so much. Yet, if I did not have such strong roots in my hometown, I would not have been able to appreciate another continent in the way I did.

While I am looking forward to returning to Oxford and American college life, there are some European cultural norms I plan to incorporate into my lifestyle.

One small thing that stuck out to me while abroad was how environmentally conscious the general majority of the continent is. When I went to the grocery store, I always had to bring a reusable bag, which was hard to remember at first, but eventually became routine. This habit is not exclusively “European,” but it showed me how I can easily incorporate “green” lifestyle choices in my life.

On a larger social scale, the culture of leisure in Europe encourages quality time and connection. At restaurants, servers do not bring the check right away to allow for an elongated meal and chatting with friends. It is also common to sit down at cafés with a ceramic mug of coffee, rather than to-go plastic cups, and enjoy a drink in the cafe rather than on the go.

Generally, there is less urgency in a European lifestyle. In Oxford, it’s almost too easy to get caught up in the routine of classes and meetings, operating on autopilot to go from one place on campus to the next. When schedules control my life, I lose sight of my college experience and the joys that come with it, which is why I hope to incorporate the sense of leisure I found abroad into my Ohio life.

More than anything, I will continue reflecting on my time abroad and how new experiences can continue informing my life as I return to familiarity. While my surroundings may be the same, the mindset I approach them with will forever be changed. I have a new appreciation for small things that I used to never pay a second thought to – like air conditioning – and for that, life feels just a little bit richer.

[email protected] 

Raquel is a junior political science and journalism student. She has written and now edits for The Student since her first year in the Campus & Community section and especially enjoys political reporting. In the Fall 2024 semester, she wrote several columns about her time in Luxembourg.