Shantel: Yes. I moved to Bologna. Bologna, Italy.

Todd: Wow that's such a huge transition, what was that like? Why did you move to Italy?

Shantel: Oh wow. So I moved to Italy because I was studying abroad during my junior year at university. And so, I was to do an immersion program at the University of Bologna, which means all of my classes were in Italian. All of my homework, all of my exams, everything was completely in Italian. And I also had to find my own housing, which was also the first time I found housing on my own 'cause I had always lived in the university dorms at my university in the United States. And so, yeah. To navigate one a new city, a city in general and then finding my first apartment, and learning how to survive a new university system. It was exhilarating and very exciting. Yeah, I loved it.

Todd: That's so cool. So, what was it like when you first got to Italy? Did you have culture shock? You came from a small town environment and now you're living in a big city in Europe.

Shantel: I think my friends would probably say that I was very quick to trust everyone. As I mentioned before growing up in a small town, I knew all my neighbors and I was very trusting of strangers and very welcoming, and I still am. But in hindsight, when I moved to Italy I think I was maybe a little too naive sometimes and especially not knowing the language, it was easy to sort of put my trust or my faith in someone when I needed help because I needed help often, whether for translating or even just grocery shopping. And so, sometimes I think I look back I'm like, "Oh, maybe I should have walked away a little bit sooner," or something like that.