So last time we
talked about what you needed to do to prepare for studying abroad. So far I
said you should get your passport, plan what school you need to go to, start
saving, ensure you pre-order things you want to bring, and set-up ways to
communicate back home. Now we will start covering the last five things I think
you should do to prepare for studying abroad.
Number 6
Okay now if you are
a guy please don’t run away. The next thing on my list is… clothing. Still
there? Okay the hard part for you guys is over. Now it is the girls I'll have
to not scare off. Your wardrobe is going to be really small. You are going to
want to set up a few outfits that can be mixed and matched to create several
more outfits. Now before you start freaking out, it gets worse. Okay well
actually just worse for the girls, you guys will be totally fine. If you have
really bright and obvious colors people will notice when you start wearing the
same thing again a lot sooner. Also you may want to limit the shoes you bring
to 2. also depending on the country you may want easy to put on and take off
shoes. I know in Japan I was always taking off my shoes, and not just at houses
but other places too. Church, bath houses, etc. so make sure they come on and
off easily or else you may go mad. For those wanting to absolutely have that
larger wardrobe you have two choices. You will need to either but the clothes
in country and leave them before you come back, or pay a lot of money to ship
them or have extra luggage. Suit cases cannot go over 50lbs/23kg without adding
an additional charge, and the suitcase's weight is included in this. Just know
it adds up quick.
Shichiban
Our
list is starting to get long, so here is your first easy item. Complete
everything early. Sounds easy, but I bet many of you will struggle with this
one. I know I did. It may sound obvious, but the main reason is that there will
be several opportunities that will show up that you did not know about. You may
find out later and it may change how you need to plan your trip, or if you have
to spend money on something you were not expecting. Some of these opportunities
may rely on you already having more things prepared. So when you can knock out
tasks, paperwork, and preparation details early. Some examples of things that I
needed to be pre-prepared for included; having passports for scholarships,
having money for the other country's national insurance, signing up for the
international student identification card (ISIC - https://www.isic.org/) having a ton of passport photoes (not just for passports
surprisingly), international driver's licence (must be done in home country,
and cannot be done in other country) and many more things. There will be a lot
of things like this so take care of them before you get overwhelmed by the more
that will come.
8
So months have gone
by and you have worked out almost everything. Now you are working hard at just
keeping the anxiety away before the trip. Since by now you have gotten most of
your paperwork prepared, maybe you are even close enough that you have your visa
too. You should make copies of everything. How you keep these is up to you;
concealed flash drive, cloud storage, hidden folder. Any way you do it is fine,
but you need backup copies of all of your important documents. Depending on if
you have medical conditions this may include copies of these files as well. If
anything happens to you there may be a need to have these, so you should be
prepared by ensuring you make copies. Before I went to Japan, tragedy almost
struck. A lost wallet containing a passport and all of the cash (Japanese
yen) I had to start the trip was almost
never seen again. Everything turned out alright, but it can happen and if it
does you need to have a way to fix it. Also back on the medical documents,
turns out I needed some while I was there. Fortunately I'm like file crazy and
had it, but I did not even think I was going to need it and just had it in case
of emergency… I am so happy that I did.
九
Crunch
time. It's the night before your plane leaves (and it leaves early in the
morning) You've collected everything you think you will need and are now test
loading it into your luggage at 10:00pm and you find out that it is too heavy
and doesn’t even all fit in the two suitcases you have. This was me before I
left. I ended up staying up somewhere between 2-4 am trying to get everything
packed in time for my flight at 9am. Needless to say I slept well on the flight
(actually I didn't) Trying to get all of that ready was crazy though, and for
all of my preparedness I did not realize figuring out what to leave behind was
going to be so hard. All of this to say DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE! Try
packing your suitcase several times before hand. Remember that you may get new
things you want to bring, and you may not need everything you have. If you are
leaving in winter then sure wear some winter gear (on your body and on the
plane as it saves space) but if not, even if it is fall don't try and bring
that. If you really need it later buy it on amazon. They are almost everywhere
and can sometimes surprise you where they can deliver. If you love something a
whole lot do not bring it. Stuff happens, things break, get lost, and when you
have gathered more things in that country that you absolutely want to bring
back something else will not come back. So when you do these trial packings of
your suitcases make sure to leave space as well. Or else you may end up like me
before I came home from Japan, trying to decide if I should leave the amazing
tea set I got there or the PS3 I brought with me. I kept both don't worry. I
just got rid of all my clothes, most of which I liked.
Number 10
The final thing you
should do to prepare is to remember you are going to a new country. There are
going to be different rules, laws, people, ways of thinking and people will
perceive things differently. You may
have differences of opinion and things may be difficult because others have a
different background from you. This will happen, and there is no helping it.
Take the time to learn. Learn how they think, and realize that the laws that
govern you have shaped you in some ways to be who you are while theirs have
done the same to them. Remember you are also a representative of your home
country and college. When you do things, wherever you go people will use you to
judge how they think and perceive where you are from. Also your actions can
have larger ramifications than you think. Acting up could easily make it so
your college is no longer able to study abroad there. It sounds like it may be
a bit extreme based off of your actions alone, but this has happened before so
just remember who you represent. On both of these points I have many examples,
but there are far too many to isolate and share, besides that is part of the
experience you are leaving to enjoy anyways. I can't teach it.
Well this concludes
my top ten ways to prepare for study abroad. If you liked it please subscribe.
If not then let me know what you think in the comments below. Do you have
things you think are more important for preparing for study abroad? Tell me
what they are.
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