When I started college three years ago, the only thing on my mind was I would get to study abroad my junior year. That’s all I cared about. Being able to spend a semester living in a foreign country was the goal, besides graduating of course. It’s all I thought about. Where I wanted to go. What classes I wanted to take while I was there. What countries I wanted to travel to. It consumed my brain, by the time it came three years later for me to make my decision about it all, it all felt surreal.
For my semester abroad, I attended Champlain College Dublin, which is an extension of the Champlain College campus (located in Burlington, Vermont). Living in Dublin was the most amazing time of my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Though, there are somethings I wish I had known before starting the adventure of a lifetime…
For my semester abroad, I attended Champlain College Dublin, which is an extension of the Champlain College campus (located in Burlington, Vermont). Living in Dublin was the most amazing time of my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Though, there are somethings I wish I had known before starting the adventure of a lifetime…
- Pack for every type of weather
Going abroad to Dublin, Ireland my only thought about what the weather would be like was that it would be rainy. So I packed for rainy fall weather. What I wasn’t expecting was experiencing all four seasons in less than five minutes in a day. I thought New England weather was bi-polar, boy was I wrong. If I could repack all over again, I would make sure to pack clothes for every season, because no matter where you are, you don’t know what the weather is going to be like.
- A budget is your best friend
This one doesn’t really need much explanation. Seriously though, make a budget and stick to it! I can honestly say that I barely made it to the end of the semester with enough money to get a cab. If I could do it again, I would have taken the time to make a budget for what and how much I wanted to spend my money on.
- School work doesn’t go away
As much as we’d like to believe that our school work will just go away when we go abroad, it doesn’t. As far as my semester went, this was the hardest semester for me. If there’s one thing that I learned a lot about, it was time management. Don’t let your school work get away from you, it’ll build up and before you know it, it’s all due at the same time. - Know where you want to travel to
Not to say that I didn’t travel a lot, but I wish that I would have thought about where I wanted to go before I got to Europe, then I would have gotten to travel even more. In total I went to four different countries, which in theory isn’t bad, but if I had planned well enough for traveling I would have gotten to travel even more. - Don’t think it will be easy
The last thing I wish I could have known is that going abroad wasn’t going to be easy. The first couple weeks of being abroad was easily the hardest. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to be away from home. The most important thing you need to have when going abroad is both support in the country you’re now living in and back home. You never know when homesickness will hit you, and it helps to have people in your life who will be there to support you and cheer you up.