My Safe Space a with Great People

In Dublin, we did not have the opportunity to stay in the campus dorms like international students in previous years had. Our group stayed in a hotel this year, each of us sharing rooms with one other student. The students that we were placed with were other students from the University of Pittsburgh, not from other colleges on the trip. This group was primarily made up of mostly rising junior nursing students, and seeing as I am a rising senior, I was unfamiliar with most of them before this trip began. When we were paired up in random pairs for housing, I was admittedly a little nervous to live with a person that I had never met before. This person that I had to get to know would be with me through the most vulnerable states of this trip. Before the beginning of the trip, I reached out to my future roommate just as a measure to begin to get to know the person that I would be spending lots of time with throughout the trip.  We hit it off almost immediately, and I knew that we would be friends and this trip would be off to a fantastic start.
When we arrived, I truly had no idea what kind of place to expect. When we checked in, we found ourselves to be in extremely close quarters. The rooms were a little smaller than I had expected them to be. This made making acquaintance such a quick and close task between my roommate and me.  Our beds were two singles, no further than a foot apart from one another. There was little room for our bags, and much less room to open up and organize my things. Nonetheless, I found the space to be quite comforting and like my safe space on this journey abroad.
I also found the 24/7 staff to be super outgoing and kind at all times. They were always very warm each time we stepped foot into the hotel. They always made sure that we did not need anything each and every time we passed the front desk. They made this whole transition to a new environment and country much smoother.
So, I would say that staying in a smaller hotel with an unfamiliar acquaintance in a country that is new to me is the challenge of this experience. Each issue came with its own set of circumstances that were conquered with time. I did love many things about my housing situation for this trip. I found that my roommate and I are very compatible, and we became super close as a result. Additionally, the hotel's proximity and location to campus allowed me to get in periods of exercise that I would have not got in otherwise.