FYA Feature: Nicole Drake, Dancer and Linguist

FYA (First Year Abroad) Feature is a series of profiles on the diverse group of FSU study abroad students who are currently spending their first year abroad in Florence, Italy. As freshmen, FYAs make the decision to spend three semesters living in Spain, Italy, England, or Panama, before ever living in Tallahassee. Those FYAs that complete three semesters and maintain the required GPA qualify for in-state tuition for the remainder of their undergraduate coursework at FSU.

Nicole Drake is from Cape Coral, Florida. Her love of dancing, other cultures, and foreign languages made her an all-around fascinating person to talk to, and while her experience is especially unique due to her transition from being homeschooled to going to college halfway around the world.

Question (Q): What was being home schooled like?

Nicole Drake (ND): I had two very different experiences. I grew up in a very small town in Illinois where there were only 2500 people. There, I was pretty much the only one. It was a very isolated experience. I only met people at Church on Sundays. But when I moved to Florida when I was sixteen, I got to participate in a huge homeschool community. We had clubs, prom, weekly meetings… it was a much more social experience since I had a place to meet other students. As for school, when I was younger my parents would teach me, but by high school I was pretty much teaching myself.

Q: Was it a significant transition going from being homeschooled to being in college?

ND: It wasn’t that big of a transition, because all of my classes were college classes during my junior and senior year of high school. I’m pretty comfortable with the academics. The study abroad part of it was kind of a culture shock at first, but I love it.

Q: Was it weird adjusting to being around so many people your age?

ND: Kind of. I’m a social person, but I kind of miss having alone time. But I love having people around to do stuff with all the time. It was weird to adjust to, living with two other people in a building full of teenagers.

Q: While in high school, you competed as a ballroom dancer. What was that like?

ND:  I competed as a ballroom dancer in Florida. I worked with mostly home schooled dancers, and we did everything from waltz to salsa. It was a really weird experience but it’s one of my favorite memories. Everyone looks at me strange when I tell them that I was, and technically still am, a ballroom dancer.

Q: Why do you say it’s weird?

ND: Just because there aren’t a lot of young ballroom dancers, or maybe because when you think of ballroom dancing you think of older people, or a married couple dancing on their wedding day. Primarily, the main style of dancing people do nowadays is modern or hip-hop, so we’re kind of a relic of the past.

Q: How and when did you get interested in dancing?

Q: So you’re planning on majoring in multiple languages. How did you come to that decision, and what do you want to do with the foreign languages?

ND: I had the chance to take an upper-level language class during my senior year, and I came to love the complexity of language when I started reading Harry Potter in French. It made me appreciate how life looks through the lens of another language. It kind of changes your perspective. When it came down to applying to colleges, half the time I would panic and just put modern languages for my major because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to … but once I found this program, I had the opportunity to see if this is really what I wanted to do.

Q: Has studying abroad made you more confident in your hope to become a translator?

ND: I’m so glad I did this. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else as a career in the future. I just have to actually get good enough at the language.

Q: How did you hear about the first year abroad program?

ND: I got the official brochure for the program in the mail after I got accepted to FSU. I only had two weeks before the deadline, but somehow all the pieces managed to fall in place and I was able to apply the day before the deadline.

Q: What surprised you the most about your experience?

ND: The weirdest moment for me was getting to our apartment, meeting one of my roommates, and realizing that we had to go out into this city we didn’t know, where we didn’t see the language, and try to find lunch. The amount of freedom in that was absolutely terrifying. It doesn’t sound like a big deal now, but at the time it was terrifying.

Q: What is your favorite place that you’ve visited outside of Italy?

ND: I think it’s kind of a tie for me between Paris, France and Munich, Germany. We went to Germany for Oktoberfest, but the city was beautiful. I had gotten so used to Italian architecture that it was such a change of pace to see something new. You’d turn around the corner and it would be a whole new look. The city was very unique. And being in France was great because I actually spoke the language. Also, the amount of wonders and monuments in Paris was startling.

Q: What has been your favorite part of your study abroad experience?

ND: Probably making friends outside of the program. It’s always amazed me that one of my Italian friends can make a joke in Italian and we’ll get it just because the sense of humor carries over. Being able to make connections with people from different cultures opens up your world. Especially coming from such a small town and not knowing a lot of people… I feel like I’m experiencing the world.

Q: Do you have any advice to offer future FYAs?

ND:

• Do it. Don’t question it.
• They do have textbooks here, so don’t worry too much about fitting them in your suitcase.
• You’ll be able to find the apartment when you first get here. Don’t worry.
• The Florence airport is small and easy to navigate.
• As awesome as the other FSU students are, you need to get out of the study abroad bubble once in a while. It’s a big part of the experience. I didn’t really feel like I was experiencing the culture until I made friends here.
• Don’t smile at people on the street unless you know them. It’s a different culture, but Florence is an international city and you don’t want to seem like an easy target.
• Don’t be afraid to eat pasta for every single meal. It’s so cheap.

Nicole Drake (