An American student gossips about her semester abroad in Florence.
She has received severe criticism online.
How much nagging is okay?
Florence - Stacia Datskovska is studying Journalism and International Relations at New York University (NYU).
To do this, she should complete a semester abroad.
The choice falls on Florence, not on the big and famous cities like Abu Dhabi, Paris or Shanghai, for which their university is famous.
She expected an "Italian dream" with holiday romance, lots of ice cream and sun.
In the end, however, their expectations were far from fulfilled.
The young woman is now venting her anger in an essay in
Insider
.
The reactions to it: negative.
On Twitter, she reaps a Shitstorm.
Shared apartment with seven other girls
The student moved in with seven other girls.
“My roommates all had different daily routines.
Everyone was out at different times, whether it was day or night.
A lot of them went out until early in the morning,” she says.
Meanwhile, she mainly worked in her online internship.
She didn't celebrate.
Most of her fellow students chose to travel on the weekends.
To Croatia, Ibiza, or to Munich to the Oktoberfest.
But for Datskovska, those weren't options: "It seemed like an exhausting way of escaping reality." Nevertheless, she travelled.
However, alone.
Her destinations were Nice, London, Lugano, Malta and Dubai.
However, she stayed at home most weekends.
With that she was alone in her apartment.
"The lack of human interaction didn't help me be optimistic," she said.
Nobody seemed to embody the same values as they did.
The Italians behaved hostilely towards the young woman: “I started wearing Nike Air Max and sweaters that were too big.
Locals rolled their eyes when I walked past them.”
Twitter users are outraged by the young woman's complaints
The American Amanda Knox, who was falsely convicted for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher during her time in Italy and thus became famous, took up this essay on Twitter.
"Girl, what are you talking about?
Studying abroad is great!” the 35-year-old posts in her tweet.
The comments then poured out.
"She sounds like an absolutely unbearable A**.
The whole text can be summarized as: 'I, me, as opposed to them, I on the other hand' and 'why isn't it just about ME?'
and 'why didn't they love me?'” rants one Twitter user.
Girl, what are you talking about?
Studying abroad is awesome! https://t.co/xlEgCKTzqg
— Amanda Knox (@amandaknox) March 15, 2023
Many wonder how one can complain when one is privileged and has the opportunity to do a semester abroad.
"Imagine if you're so incredibly privileged that you can't enjoy and appreciate a semester in Florence," complains another user.
Datskovska's statements are referred to as "first world problems".
The young student probably didn't do herself any favors with her essay.
Your self-depiction in the text seems to be quite unsympathetic to many readers.
Perhaps she should have been more self-critical.
That could have made the problems in a foreign country, without family and significant others, more approachable.
Because these are probably understandable for everyone and not so far-fetched.
Semesters abroad are offered at many universities and are sometimes among the most important course content.
This possibility is also available at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.
