What if you did all the classwork for a study abroad back home before you go abroad, and then you just backpack around when you go? Can't think of a better approach to studying abroad. No one wants to go somewhere new to then sit in a classroom for hours each day.

This class was focused on Italy during the Renaissance and learned many important details about the transformative era. For example, Michelangelo painted an angel giving the Italian equivalent of flipping the bird to the Pope at the time. Technically the angel is flipping off the prophet Zechariah, but the prophet is depicted at Pope Julius. Check it out.

We studied for a month in a small classroom during beautiful summer mornings in Omaha, and then traveled across Italy for a beautiful month.

My third and final short-term study abroad experience was to India in summer 2018. UNO's College of IS&T had a partnership with a Bennett University, a university outside of New Delhi. A group of UNO students went to India for 10 days, staying at the university for most of that time, and students from Bennett would spend some time at UNO in the following year.

My trip to China was helpful for this trip by helping me prepare for some of the culture shock in India, but the experience can still only be described as an assault of the sense. The sights, sounds, smells, and tastes were all other worldly, and not always in a good way. Extreme contrasts in wealth, gaudy rich next to unbelievably poor, were everywhere. However, people were incredibly kind everywhere, especially the students and staff at the university.