There comes a time in every study abroad student’s life when they are faced with a daunting and often unexpected moment — the moment they actually start studying.
Though I knew the time had to come sooner or later, it hit me hard as I faced the dilemma of trying to recount everything I knew about the end of the European era last week. I kicked myself for taking a class that sounded interesting and challenging rather than some of the easier courses offered in my program.
The class focused on the political and economic aspects of 20th century Europe. I thought it would be interesting to learn about Europe from a European perspective instead of the basic knowledge I had gotten in high school from my American curriculum.
I’m not going to sugar coat this, we’ve missed a lot.
Or at least I did. I went my whole life without knowing about a lot of European history, unless it had something to do with American history. But as I started my travels at the beginning of this semester, I began to notice more.
As a college student attempting to travel the continent, I gravitated toward free museums. Often these would be smaller museums tucked away in the city, on smaller bits of history.
This weekend, my friend and I were walking along the Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary. We saw a sign marking the date of the Hungarian Revolution, something I never would have thought about as interesting before because I had never heard of it.
But when we saw it we instantly flipped, rushing over to the underground museum full of testimonials and information on a day that is so important to this country’s history.
I attribute that excitement to Florea, my Romanian professor who chastised us for not pushing ourselves further to learn about these hidden bits of history that are actually quite devastating.
The Hungarian Revolution shocked the country Oct. 25, 1956. A large crowd gathered in Kossuth Square after the crowd was seen earlier with Soviet troops in front of the Parliament building. This led to a chain of events ending in the secret police firing into the crowd, Soviet soldiers responding and the revolution around the country against party leadership in Hungary.
Though at times I kick myself for not taking easier classes abroad, it has only contributed to my experience in Europe. With every new place, I connect the history to what I’ve been learning in class. I have never had such hands-on, real-world connectivity when it comes to learning history.
I walk the places I’m tested on, I can feel the quiet of Berlin, I can see the post-Cold War architecture in countries like Hungary and Czech Republic. It’s spooky, but I feel as if I understand them a bit better through this.
I would feel excited to come back from my travels over the weekend to my political science course and talk to my professor about what I had seen and how it differed from what she thought about it as a political science professor.
We would engage in discussion about our different perspectives of each place. Often I would learn something new, even in hindsight. I wasn’t just visiting these places; I was attempting to understand them.
Believe it or not, there is something to be said about actually studying when studying abroad.
haask@indiana.edu
@khaas96
