Ten Things You’ll Learn While Traveling Abroad

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The summer before my last year of undergrad, my parents finally managed to convince me to study abroad. I know how this sounds. I mean, how privileged can you get that someone has to convince you to take the trip of a lifetime and live in another country for a while? But I had never been away from home at this point, at least not for more than a week or without my parents, so taking a summer course on a different continent seemed daunting. Fortunately, despite a small breakdown at the airport in which I insisted that I wouldn’t be getting on the plane and was subsequently convinced by my mother and my ex that I absolutely could and would, I ended up in Spain for 5 unforgettable weeks.

Before my trip, I had always found it absolutely cheesy when people talked about how much study abroad changed their lives, or how the best sandwich they had ever eaten was the one they had in Italy nearly a decade ago. As if we don’t have sandwiches in the States. Ridiculous. I realised pretty quickly, though, that this would be one of those life-changing experiences. For me, studying abroad will always be a memory that I treasure and look back on with nostalgia.

Here are ten of the lessons that going abroad will without a doubt teach you, and I know this because I lived it. With any luck, you’ll find this handy guide without having make these mistakes on…