First of all- CONGRATULATIONS! You are about to embark on adventures you haven’t even planned yet. Stretching out before you are months of meeting new people, trying crazy food, enjoying breath-taking scenery, and making everyone you know green with envy. Go ahead, relish it: this is your chance to see the world!
With that being said, here are just a few things to keep in mind as you start thinking about next semester.
Visas: “It’ll be easy,” they said. “Just a few forms,” they said. Did they mention you might have to fly to Pennsylvania with enough paperwork to make a junior attorney squirm? Don’t cue the freak out, you have time. But maybe there are some long-lost relatives you could to visit in DC after your appointment at the embassy…? Or maybe you don’t need a visa- go you! First step: done .
Packing: You will bring too many clothes. No, you don’t need those heels; where you’re going the streets are cobblestone/sand/non-paved surfaces. You will end up wearing the same 5-10 outfits repeatedly because they’re cute, easily washed, and they don’t wrinkle (consider: you may not have access to a dryer). Of course, you want to look good in these foreign cities; after all, these pictures have high wall-decoration/photo album potential. That being said, if you’d be crushed if that shirt doesn’t make it back home in December, it probably shouldn’t go with you to begin with.
Weather: Do yourself a favor and google the average weather for the city where you’ll be spending the next 4 months of your life. Unless you’re going to the tropics, you’re going to want a winter coat, warm shoes, and a couple of scarves. When properly dressed, exploring a city when there’s a chill in the air can be thrilling. You know what’s not thrilling? Numb toes.
Cuisine: Try it all. Escargot? Go for it. Florentine lampredotto? Check. Haggis? You betcha! If it’s a delicacy, you’ve absolutely got to give it a go! Besides the fact that peanut butter DOES NOT EXIST outside of America (unless you want to pay out of the nose for it…), if you truly want the authentic experience of wherever you happen to be staying, you have to embrace the food- entrails and all.
Friends: You will make them, stop worrying about it! Nothing brings people together like spending 7 hours in the airport because (surprise) the Italians are on strike again. Or poring over a map of Paris and realizing you’ve been wandering around on the wrong side of the Seine, leaving you with a 45 minute trek back to your metro stop. These individuals will become your confidants, your drinking partners, your travel buds, and you will know more about some of them after 4 months than most of the best friends you made in high school.
Your semester abroad may well be the highlight of your college experience. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a suave, Spanish gentleman who will sweep you off your feet.
Photo evidence: Don’t forget to take lots of pictures! They won’t do that monument/view/work of architectural genius justice, but you’ll be glad you have them. If you’re super ambitious, I also recommend blogging, if for no other reason than to keep track of your weekends.
And most of all, enjoy your 4 months of (mostly) work-free global exploration/culture immersion. You’ve earned it, and it will go by entirely too quickly.