By czhangangel
When people go to study abroad, the first identity that is assumed is a student; and the following is a traveler. We should not be too unfamiliar with being a student, but for many people, being a traveler is.
This wasn’t my first rodeo being out of my home country for a long period of time, but it was my first time going alone. While there was some nervousness, I was more excited and eager than anything. I knew what resources that I had, and I felt that I had the energy to tackle any forthcoming challenges. Upon reflection of my duration studying abroad in Hong Kong, I felt prepared for the experience but also learned a lot from it. Here some things to expect while you study abroad and how to have the best travel experience.
What’s Ahead
As with anything, there are good and bad sides. The good side of studying abroad is that you are going to meet a lot of people, make new friends, eat good food, travel to new places, and maybe learn a new language. You will seldom find a time where there is nothing to do with time spent exploring new places with new people and building relationships that will extend beyond study abroad, while not studying. The bad side includes not feeling that you totally fit in the institution, finding thing inconvenient, and/or feeling torn between your old life at home and your new life at your study abroad location. How one experiences any of these study abroad experiences depend on your support at home and abroad.
Friends
Like you, many others will be coming to the same country as you as an exchange student. The population can easily search among themselves for friends due to the mutual experience of leaving home and traveling to somewhere new. It can be comforting to have this as a safety net when all other means of making friends fail, but just remember that good friends can be found where you least expect them. I found lasting friendships in those that live in and come from completely different backgrounds than me, and yet to find good friendships in fellow Americans. When making friends, it’s way better to bond through similar interests, goals, and complementary attitudes, rather than what common background someone can have with you. Everybody you meet during your study abroad experience is from somewhere – so location doesn’t become that special anymore.
Money
Knowing how you are going to spend money is very important because let’s face it – nearly everything in the world revolves around money, whether it’s paying tuition for school, paying rent, paying to eat, or paying to travel. Make your life easier by preparing money or at least knowing where it will be coming from and prioritizing where the money will go. Some prioritize travel over living, vice versa, and others. In my opinion, splurging on traveling beats eating only veggies and rice for a week any day. The first step of budgeting is knowing how much you spend, so I recommend keeping track of expenses via saving receipts and tracking them down through excel or a mobile app. From there you can feel responsible for how much money you spend, rather than looking at your bank account and wonder where that money went.
Language
When you are residing in a foreign country, you are surrounded by a great resource: the people. They can teach you about their language, food, culture, and behaviorisms. It is a resource hard to get anywhere else, so I recommend that during you say to learn – or at least attempt to – learn the native language. Such endeavors show good intentions with the people, and you get to bring home a new skill such as speaking a new language, know what is authentic cuisine, and how to act even more mannerly. At least just learn how to greet, say thank you, and sorry (very important!). Where you go, you are representing your home country, and I doubt anybody wants bad stereotypes against themselves.
The Travel Necessities
The less you have, the easier it is – and ease makes the trip better. Bring enough to stay comfortable, and the rest stays at home. That makes for less to worry about and more room for souvenirs! When traveling a lot, it gets tiring to have to bring heavy luggage place to place and think about where to leave it when you want to go out. Phone data is also another thing many people get in the country their traveling to. I think it can be a great resource such as searching what to do and where to go, but it could also be a hindrance. Vacation is supposed to be a getaway from daily life – including the phone. Time spent on browsing social media can be productively used in the location you are in. In my personal experience, it is also just simpler and rewarding to look what is right in front of your eyes to see signs and the environment around you and ask people than to walk with eyes glued to a screen.
The Key
With my last blog post, I hope my reader(s) gained valuable knowledge that they can apply to and enrich their own future study abroad experience. They say that the wise can learn from others past experiences rather than having to experience failure themselves first. Besides all that, the most important is that attitude is key: keep a light heart, and find happiness within everything wherever you go rather than sulking on the negatives because there will definitely be challenges on the way.