Earning my degree in the College of Agriculture, and especially the School of Fisheries, I have grown used to learning in an environment where the male-to-female ratio skews drastically towards the males. I’m lucky if there are two other girls in my fish classes for me to associate with. All in all, though, I feel like I do quite well for myself. I seem to get along better with guys; they usually don’t venerate the Kardashians or gossip for sport. They speak one at a time and actually listen to what the other has to say; it’s a good time for everyone.
Now throw me into a situation where I live, eat, and sleep with seventeen other females for twelve straight weeks. I’m a fish out of water.
I almost feel like an anthropologist observing a completely different culture. They like to talk about clothes, beauty products, and dieting. The words ‘like’, ‘cute’, and ‘literally’ are used in pretty much every sentence. Photo ops are a must everywhere we go, especially if we’re somewhere ‘cute’.
Before coming to Italy, I just knew that coexisting with this many females was going to be the worst part, and even had the potential to ruin my whole trip. It turns out I was wrong. Girls can be pretty awesome to hang out with. We can go swimming and hiking and do all the stuff I like to do, and at the same time talk about shopping and nail polish and Lizzie McGuire. Photo ops, it turns out, are very helpful for my ‘Insta game’, which is a really good way to keep my family and friends updated on my time here.
So, it turns out that girls really aren’t so bad. And even though I’ve only been here for five weeks, I know that I’ve made friends that will last for years.

From left to right: me, Emily Klippenstein, and Lauren Lynch having a wonderful weekend on the shores of Positano, Italy