Kaitlyn Hughes | features editor

Duquesne sophomore Claire Ianachione ran down a street in Rome in hopes of catching a bus.

She missed it and did not catch another bus for 30 more minutes.

“I think [that] just sums up the experience,” Ianachione said. “You got to roll with the punches of what’s happened.”

As the semester came to end, The Duke asked students who attended the Duquesne in Rome campus and University College Dublin to share their experiences.
Claire Ianachione

Following in her sister’s footsteps, Ianachione decided to spend the semester abroad.

This was an adjustment for her since she is from Pittsburgh and has never gone three months without seeing her friends or family.

“I was definitely homesick for a while,” she said.

As her time in Rome went on, Ianachione was distracted by the weekends of traveling and long school days.

Early on, she ran into some barriers during her time abroad — specifically, public transportation. It was intimidating for her to navigate at times, but with the use of an app on her phone she was able to figure it out and find her way around the city.

“I feel like that’s what made me grow to be so much more independent,” Ianachione said.

Throughout the trip, Ianachione learned to be more self-reliant, constantly having to make her own travel plans to different cities within Europe.

Although there were hard moments, Ianachione felt that the school did a good job at preparing the students for any culture shock that might arise.

“Definitely be prepared for high highs, but also very low lows,” Ianachione said. “Sometimes you look at study abroad online and they make it all sunshine and rainbows, but not every second is that perfect.”
Flynn McCracken.

Duquesne sophomore Flynn McCracken was part of one of the first groups to see Michelangelo’s “Pietá” after it was renovated.

This was a part of his art history class that he took with Professor Elizabeth Lev during his time studying in Rome.

After getting off of his eight-hour flight from Pittsburgh, he was surrounded by the sound of people speaking Italian.

“That was probably the first moment of culture shock,” McCracken said. “Just being there and you can’t understand everything that is going on, which is so different from America.”

The first week of living abroad was like everything McCracken romanticized, but as time went on, the movie-like feel of it quickly faded away.

He had to learn how to go about his daily life while assimilating to the culture.

Although he had three months of Italian on Duolingo under his belt, it was his daily interactions that taught him the language. By the end of his trip McCracken could walk into a coffee shop and order for himself.

Knowing he would be purchasing clothes in Italy, McCracken purposely packed light. He was under the impression that if he dressed like Italians, he could live like them.

“Seeing how other cultures work is something that you only get to do once in your life,” McCracken said.
Claire Christ

After traveling to the Galapagos Islands for a high school trip, sophomore Claire Christ decided she wanted to spend a semester abroad in Dublin. It was one of the reasons she chose Duquesne.

“I got the travel bug,” Christ said.

Christ’s overnight flight to Dublin, Ireland, was a big milestone for her because she had never traveled alone prior to this trip.

Since her arrival, Christ has kept a notebook where she writes down what she has done everyday.

The first night in Dublin, a group of students met up to have dinner at a local pub called Farmer Browns.

“I think the biggest culture shock was that the music is the exact same,” Christ said. “It’s all American music here.”

She expected to not know any songs, but restaurants and stores are constantly playing Bruno Mars, Shawn Mendes or Justin Bieber.

Alongside the fact that most people spoke English, having busy weekends filled with traveling distracted Christ from any homesickness.

“I wish my family or my friends were here with me,” she said.

As Christ made her way to different countries in Europe she was amazed by how culturally diverse people were. Oftentimes, people were fluent in more than one language.

“I feel very inspired being here,” Christ said.