Some college students don’t make study abroad a priority. For senior Rachel Martin, it wasn’t even a question.

“I always knew I wanted to study in Italy because of my Italian heritage. I wondered how my grandfather lived. I wanted to immerse myself in another culture to effect and be affected by how they live,” she said.

Martin spent last spring in Sicily, Italy where she felt she got to experience the life of true Italians. Living in an apartment in the small town of Siracusa with no television, internet or clothes dryer, she adapted to life as a college student in Italy.

Her classes varied from cooking, history of the mafia, history of the European Union and Italian language, to political theory of Plato and Aristotle. Martin said she loved the cooking class because she learned to cook Italian food the way authentic Italians prepare it. She even learned to gut a fish.

Martin said her typical day began with a 20-minute walk to the market where she would buy food for the day. None of the students had vehicles, and there was no local public transportation in her area, so walking was the prime mode of transportation.

She would go to two or three classes before the town shut down for a two hour lunch break. Unlike America, every business and restaurant closed at 2 p.m. and opened again at 4 p.m. Martin used this time in the afternoon to nap or take walks along the clear blue water of the Mediterranean.

“Businesses over here would close in the afternoon," she said. "Everyone took naps. It wasn’t a big deal to re-open the businesses on time. It was something to get used to. Things there are about quality, not quantity."

A typical night would consist of a home-cooked dinner, soccer at a local park, studies or venturing out for some gelato. No television or internet made time for reading books, relaxing and building close relationships with friends and roommates.

One thing Martin noticed was the difference between young Italian girls and American girls. She said it was strange that Italian girls were nowhere to be seen. At night, bars were packed with Italian men and American girls. She said it was even accepted for an Italian man to have an Italian and American girlfriend at the same time.

“The men there are really pushy. College life is really different there than here. No one really lives on campus, they usually live at home with their moms,” she said.

Martin also recalled being treated with kindness and respect. She said everyone in the town knew each other and treated her like family. Back in Knoxville for her last semester, Martin says she misses her time in Italy but is also glad to be home.

“Studying abroad taught me so much about European culture and changed my views from ethnocentric to more global. It taught me independence and how to figure things out on my own because I didn’t speak the language,” she said.