A Broad Side - Neat things and why you should find them

I talked about what things you should bring back with you, but how did you get those things in the first place? Even if I don't know what country you are going to I can still help with this one. Ready? And go!

Interested in something? Anything? Culture? Martial arts? The first thing to do is get something based in why you are interested in that country. Find something unique to that place. I am very interested in Japanese culture and history. While I was there I went to some museums as well as found my own kimono, equipment for tea ceremony, had fun with some martial arts, and even went to the place where tea ceremony started. As far as things to bring back with me, I had a kimono and a lot of tea ceremony stuff. So focusing on your interests is a good way to get some of the stuff.

Since you are likely also there to learn the language then you should also consider finding a lot of things that you would want to read and collect them to bring back with you. This can help with your language skills, and be a resource that you couldn’t get back home. You do want to be careful of making sure you don’t make your suitcase too heavy, but if you don’t overload on these things you should be fine.

What about you own way of representing the culture or lifestyle that you found there in your own way? How can you do that? While there I wanted to learn more about the food, and now at home I make a lot of my own Japanese food as well as eat them with hashi or chopsticks. So if there is something you want to know more about, ask people there and research it so you can bring that knowledge back with you.

Let's hone in on some Japan specific things. Now I already mentioned that I found a kimono, but do you know how many parts there are? So many, more than you would have thought originally… well at least for the girl's kimono, the guys is a bit simpler but still. Why did I want to find this? Well it is something that I could not easily if at all find in the states and would be more than just a souvenir from Japan but it was also a journey. Finding it was not easy, there were things that you couldn’t just learn about them just by looking online. I had to speak with many old ladies to find out that the colors you used and matched with as well as the patterns made a huge difference. So just "getting a kimono" is not just a simple task but a journey that helped me learn more about Japan. This applies to the country you go to as well. Don’t just "get" what it is you want but learn about it too. This experience will deepen the experience you have

(plus most of those old ladies only spoke Japanese so it also got me a lot of practice)

Find out what it is like in the country side. Okay don’t think I'm spouting craziness just yet. The countryside can be completely different from the city. The people there will be different, talk different and who knows, you may like it out there better than the city. Even if you don’t it is an experience that you will not get in the city. Plus it is usually really beautiful out there.

Talk to the old people… okay yes they will probably bore you, especially if you never do it back home. But they are a great source of information, as well as helping you learn more about things you wouldn't or couldn’t otherwise find out about. Did I mention kimono colors and shapes? Also my tea ceremony teachers were old ladies, and I probably learned more from them than anyone else. So yeah. Get out and talk to some old people.

Go to a thrift store. Okay so the only thrift stores I have experience with are the ones in the US and in Japan. Regardless they are not the same. Different things are cheaper, there are things that you would never expect to find in a different country's thrift store. Maybe something you want is there and at a good price… like 1 dollar Pokémon games.

There are more things you could do so check it out. Find new things and go new places. Get lost! Actually that one is really important, and you really should try it in all seriousness. You learn a whole lot when you get lost. If there is anything else you think people should try leave it in a message down below. And if you liked this subscribe. Now go and try something weird. You will learn a lot from it.

A Broad Side - What to sneak out/or not

You've just spent time abroad and now it is time to leave. You loaded your suitcase and found that you filled it without fitting everything you have into it. How are you supposed to return home without everything? Well I'm here to tell you how… okay I lied you can't bring everything back. But you can bring the things that matter. What matters? What should you leave?

Also this isn't a list of things to bring/not bring back. Just giving you an idea of how to decide which things you should/should not bring back.

Before you freak-out you need to decide what things are important. I really struggled with this myself. I ended up deciding that I had clothes back home that I could wear and actually left most the ones if had with me in Japan. Not everything I brought back with me was probably the best, but there were many things I had already invested in and so in order to bring the things I felt were important at that point I had to make sacrifices.

For instance, while in Japan I joined the tea ceremony club (sadou 茶道) I began collecting many of the items to perform the ceremony; bowls, water pots, ladles, stands, fans, etc. I had actually collected a lot of items for it. These were culturally important, I even had special ones with history and were in many ways irreplaceable. Because of the time and investment I put into them as well as their cultural importance they were something I decided to bring back with me. Now conversely there were so many things as similar to this that I had to sacrifice an entire suitcase for this stuff. That is a large commitment because typically all you can have are two suitcases unless you pay more. So if you make a decision like that make sure you really feel it is worth it.

Something I did, that I would tell you not to do is bring a bunch of books back home with you. It was too tempting and I couldn’t help myself, but most of the books I could buy back here. Now if you find things that have a major price difference and you feel it would be better to buy it wherever you go then by all means get it there, but if not try not to go crazy. On the flip side I did but some things in Japan that were way cheaper there. Several games including newer Pokémon games for less than five dollars. Big, big price difference. So well worth their weight.

So a difficult thing to tackle is souvenirs because some people have more of a tradition surrounding it. But I can at least make this short. If it is normal for you to get them, then try to keep them small and light. I know that is hard, but if you don’t then you will run out of space and weight quickly. If you do not normally get them though, just don’t bother because you will most likely find yourself fighting for that space and weight later.

School work should probably stay there. If you have school books that you will actually reference later then bring it, but your work and other things are not really important. You should bring syllabi back because most schools need them, and you never know if you will have to reference them later. Although if you can get your syllabi digitally that would be better. Most of your other school papers though will be unneeded, so choose carefully what you bring with you.

I don’t have much more advise on what to bring or not bring back, but I do suggest you think carefully about what to bring back with you. If you have any questions or want to know what I think you should or should not bring leave me a message. And if you liked this please subscribe.

A Broad Side - What not to sneak in

I'm going to be away in another country for months if not a year. I have to bring it, I need to bring it. I'll die without it. Well it turns out that isn't true, and over preparing can become dangerous if done wrong. So here comes my list of things not to bring to another country. Please note that in extreme situations some of these may not apply, but these are just general so they should hit larger groups of people.

Let's just get this one out of the way now. Your cell phone! Okay maybe just that sim card. Few of you that can afford those roaming charges anyways. There are some services out there that let you travel and have "cheaper" phone calls but most of them are still pricey. I recommend picking up a sim card in the country you go to if you need to have one. They will be cheaper, but it is likely that calls home will still be costly so when you call home use a free service like google voice and call from your computer.

Next is going to be books. Just about any kind of book unless there is a special one that has everything you need in one, but then I still recommend you take it as carry-on. They take up a lot of space and weight, and odds are there are books like that there, or you can buy them there. Still wanting that guidebook? There is definitely one there and a million more people that will give you word of mouth information on the best places to go. Really wanting to hold onto that awesome Japanese book that you learned from to learn the Japanese you know now? (oh this one was hard for me… I brought it anyways… never used it.) Don't!

Our third member on this list is in that category where certain situations may deem it okay. Beauty products can for the most part be left behind. The time I would say are exceptions would be when you do something specific that you "cannot" find in the country you go to. For example if you use very elusive natural products on your hair that are already hard to find back home. Everyone else though, just buy it in country. I don’t want you to think "oh I can't leave home without my V05 because trust me they have something just as good if not the same product.

Since the women feel picked on now let's get the men. Grooming products are not needed either. Leave the shaver and pick one up there. Same with the cream, they already have it. If you want to sneak in your favorite deodorant because it may be a few days before you can order one though feel free, because OMG I cannot stand your funk. Still do not bring tons. And if you really care you should know that yes contraceptive can be bought in other countries. Do not ask me why I know.

The kitchen sink. Okay I know that is vague but you know what I mean. DVD players, hot plates, hair dryers, game consoles and coffee makers. If you are worried, I have already made a list on how to deal with not having some of these things like DVD players and game consoles. Check it out here http://stirfriedtango.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-broad-side-what-to-sneak-in.html As far as the other things, they can be bought online. Just know that I did bring my own game console and although packed really well, the TSA broke two of my controllers and the front of my console. Now I thought I would be using it a lot, but as it turns out TVs are expensive and the only way I had to play it was to hook it up to my computer. In the end I found that I played way more games on my computer. I would advise against bringing all of the extra gadgets.

Paper, and lots of documents are something else to try not to bring. Yes there will be a few things that you need to have but for the most part you shouldn’t bring these. Digitally copy them and bring the scanned copies. They will be lighter and less bulky. I would also try not to bring things like notebooks and just anything papery in general. Sure if you do better by taking notes on paper then do so, but you will only need something small to survive the flight until you get the chance to buy something to write in there.

Last on this list is jewelry. This sounds like a no brainer, but even I caught myself doing this. "oh I may want this awesome necklace. And my funny face glasses" okay you don’t have funny face glasses, but someone does so it could happen. I brought a bunch of things with me that I thought I would need but in the end I rarely used, if at all. And then of course I wanted to bring all of it back with me. I went to Japan with 2 suitcases and came back with 3.5 so just know that there will be other things you will want on the way.

Heh, I said that was last, but I still have another comment to make. If you love it you probably shouldn't bring it. If it is your favorite it might get left behind when you are trying to decide what needs to come back with you. So just plan to lose all of your clothes, and not care about most of the things you brought with you when you have to pick between

So guys I know this wasn’t a long list but I figured I could leave off the stuff I felt was obvious not to bring. Was there anything you thought I should tell people not to bring? Are there things you want to bring but are unsure if you should, or not? If so leave a comment down below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. And good luck on your journey abroad.

A Broad Side - What to Sneak In

Okay please do not read the title and believe that I want you to sneak drugs in. Remember that you represent your home institution and doing something like that can get that school or even country banned from going to the location you are at. DO NOT SNEAK DRUGS IN.

Also you aren't really sneaking anything, it's just fun to call it that.

Disclaimer [check]

What to sneak in! After you have scoped out the country you plan to infiltrate there are some key essentials you will want to bring in with you so your mission can have the highest success rate.

As always communication with the home base is the utmost essential thing you need and what better way to accomplish that than your super high-tech spy computer. Able to make phone calls to home through google voice and utilize the all-powerful internet to find out any information you could possibly need. With this piece of tech you will never be bored as there are infinite possibilities on the web, just ask your local hacker.

Something important to keep in mind is that the target country may nor use the same technology as us so you will also need to make sure your tech is compatible with theirs. How terrible would it be if you get there and find out that your spy computer cannot get plugged into their outlet? Even countries that are "compatible" still share many differences. Japan, although compatible with the U.S. actually forsakes that silly ground hole and thinker/wide end on the plug. Make sure the adapter you bring allows you to adapt to even the harshest of conditions.

While on the subject of your spy computer's compatibility, you may want to consider picking up a VPN or proxy so you can enjoy the internet of your home country. There are a few companies that sadly do not allow you to use proxies, but as you are a super-secret spy you shouldn't be spending your time on Netflix anyways. (they work locally in most countries anyways.) there are both paid and free proxy services, while free ones are not always very reliable there paid ones are not typically very expensive. Also if you are an aspiring hacker needing to hide your location Tor may be how you want to browse.

Enough with the tech, now to consider your wardrobe. In order to help you blend in I recommend bringing several shirts that allow you to look different quite often, even though you have very few with you. Pants do not matter as much but you should bring enough that you can rotate your clothes out, or you will wear them out. A smaller wardrobe means that you wear the same things more often and actually wear the clothes out faster. A good spy can set up their wardrobe in a way the makes it seem like they have tons of clothes or at least hides that they are wearing the same things over and over, while only having a limited amount of options. Remember it doesn’t take very many clothes to fill up your suitcase and if you do where will you put your high tech gear?

Another important thing is to know how to properly stave off the locals. Sometimes it can be with your awesome looks, but some situations call for more crafty tricks. A good way is to shower them with cheap gifts such as postcards from where you came from. With this light weight and clever distraction you can show pictures from home and give presents they will enjoy all while saving luggage space and money.

Another powerful tool you need is your spy watch, able to track time at home and in the target country. Remember it never hurts to be informed, and when you need to make those phone calls back to home base you would best not wake them up at odd hours. HQ gets really grumpy when you do that. This is lightweight and able to travel in carry-on. Small, simple, but the enemy won't ever know its true purpose.

Worried that you may not have the entertainment you need? The internet just isn't good enough? Well there is a solution for that. Obviously you can rip CDs to your computer, but with software such as DVD Decrypter you can bring copies of your DVDs too. PSP Video 9 can then convert them to mp4s for saving even more space. Also services such as Steam allow you to download lots of games onto your hard drive and play them offline. Do not bring the disks for these things though, as they are quite heavy. If you need space grab a portable external hard drive. Once your data is safely stored you can travel without fear of boredom. Make sure you password protect it though so the enemy cannot steal it and access your information.

Toiletries can become a must depending on where you go. You may be surprised at what is common place in a country. Some countries may prefer spray on deodorants instead of stick and if you prefer stick then you may not find it. Some other countries dislike perfume, so you also may want to research it first. Remember to bring the things that you need not just really want. A toothbrush is a need, a hair dryer is not (and is really heavy for travel, just buy one there if you actually "need" it)

Your important documents scanned and saved as files on a secret hidden file or drive. Medical, travel, and other documents can become very necessary or if you lose things like your passport having a scanned backup could save you a whole lot of grief. Try not to bring paper copies as they will take up space and weight. Besides a passworded flash drive in your hand or pocket is a lot safer than a bunch of papers in a suitcase. If you bring paper it should be money, because not everywhere takes a card.

Finally we encourage you to bring along your spy camera. One with good photographic and videographic capabilities. You never know when you will want to document something, blog, vlog, or otherwise share your amazing experience with your fellow compatriots on the web. We know it is harder for you younger spies to resist the Facebook and YouTube, so if you are going to access them at least have good quality work to show for it. If you want to have a lightweight one, I recommend a mirrorless, but anything that has both video and picture capabilities is just fine.

Good luck on your mission. If you succeed you will be a hero.

A Broad Side - Getting the Green

Set the scene

You are from a low income family and they could barely send you to college. No! you are having to pay your own way, on student loans, a job, and federal grants. Now you want to study abroad, but alas you deem it impossible for you because you can barely afford school as is.

Feel like this? I sure did. I was working full time, a full time student, very limited support from family (sometimes getting me food or fixing my ancient car) and most of the time I didn't actually know if my bills were getting paid. How could I afford to study abroad?

First I want to tell you about this amazing thing call the federal Pell grant (assuming you do not have it already) which if you fall under a certain income bracket you can receive to help pay for college. If not for this grant I could not afford to go. If you have never heard of this I recommend going to your financial aid office and inquiring about how you can get it. Don't worry I'll wait.

So have you gotten it? Not that hard was it? Now for students that are poor enough that they need to use this grant, you are probably still thinking "how can I afford to study abroad?" Do not worry I'm about to get to that too. For those eligible to receive the Pell grant there is a scholarship you are also now eligible to receive. The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. Here is their site btw http://www.iie.org/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program

This scholarship can be really competitive so be aware that you will need to be compelling when you apply but know that it is well worth it. Normal applicants who receive the scholarship can receive up to $5,000, while those who are studying a critical language in its native country can receive up to $8,000. Critical languages according to their site include: Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu. I would assume that because they use the word "include" that there may be more. Now before I received the scholarship and was still in the application stage I did see a chart that said about 50% of people who apply for East-Asian countries get the scholarship and since I was also studying Japanese in Japan and it is a critical language I'm thinking that may have given me a decent chance of getting it but do not let this discourage you. Even if you aren't studying a language and are wanting to go to England please try and apply. If you do not try the only one missing out on a life changing experience is you. Also even if you are applying in a critical language the odds of getting the full $8,000 is actually quite low. In the year I studied abroad 2015-2016 over 2,800 scholarships of up to $5,000 were given out, only 70 people received $8,000 and I was not one.

You may now be wondering "who can get this scholarship?" well they tell you that on their site too. http://www.iie.org/en/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program/About-the-Program/Eligibility#Eligibility You need to be a U.S. citizen, an undergraduate at an accredited university, receive that awesome Pell grant I mentioned above, have already applied to your study abroad program, and not be studying in a country that is under a travel warning issued by the U.S. The last requirement is that you cannot have already received this scholarship, but I'll just assume you haven't yet.

I see that look. Now you are thinking that there must be a big catch. Why else would they just give us poor people such a nice scholarship? What do they want from us? Get this! They want us to be better people. On the about the program page it says "The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies or credit-bearing, career-oriented internships abroad. Such international exchange is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world." 素敵だね。What do they want in return? They want you to encourage others to study abroad and if they can't afford it spread the word about their scholarship.

Pumped yet? Okay now wait a sec I'm not finished.  When you apply you will have to write a paper about why you should get the scholarship and another about what you will do when you get back to help encourage study abroad. This second one was a little hard for me. Gilman allows  you to decide how you want to encourage it as part of your follow-on-service-project. You can do just about anything here. Many people write blogs, make videos, help out at their local study abroad fair and many others. There are many things you can do and the more mediums you can think of the more helpful you will be to others that want to study abroad. I have personally found word of mouth to be more successful in getting people to apply, but that doesn’t mean it is the only way. The only limiter is your imagination.

Enough about Gilman. Although an impressive scholarship what if you are concerned it is not enough. Well there is something that may have never crossed your mind. Most other countries have scholarships and grants that you are eligible to get as well. Something else to remember is that a lot of other countries feel that college should not be this expensive thing for people to go to, and some even let you go for free. Therefore there are often some really good scholarships you can obtain while abroad that will help out a lot. I personally received the JASSO, while in Japan, and if it was not for both the Gilman and JASSO I would not have had the funds to study abroad. I also got more from JASSO than from Gilman. Surprising no one though, the cost of living in Tokyo is really high so if I had only gotten one I would have been underfunded. There are also many more scholarships you can apply for, that do not necessarily give large amounts but when combined you could easily have more than enough. So search for them and apply.

Get out there and explore

A Broad Side - Top 10 Preparations part 2

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.

A Broad Side - Top 10 Preparations part 1

So what do you need to before you study abroad?

Studying abroad can be difficult because you are typically planning a trip where you leave your family and everyone you know along with most of your possessions behind… well unless something terribly tragic happened to you and you have neither family nor possessions…

Before trying to take on this long and dangerous venture you should at least be able to prepare for it so you survival chances can go up. Thus here is my list of things you need to do to prepare for feeling the wrath of the league… no! stupid copyright. the list of things you need to do to prepare for studying abroad.

Numba wan

You're at school and this person comes to your class and tells you about thing interesting experience that comes with going to another country… somehow they intrigue you and you want to go. You think about it and decide you might do it a year from now. So that means you don't have to worry about preparing now doesn't it? それは違うんです。 Although you may think you don't have to do anything you actually need to start… NOW. Many of the documents required to go abroad can take months to complete and most will need to be completed months before you even study abroad, or even before you are considered for study abroad. *deep breath* So the first on my list of things to do to prepare for study abroad is get your passport. Passports at the very fastest take 2-6 weeks to get, BUT this service costs a lot more. In fact unless there is an emergency and you have a good reason to apply for a passport late, the very fastest is 6 weeks, and that is still the expediated time frame (their website say less than 6 weeks but that’s all)  cheapest expediting fees are like $60 so I wouldn’t recommend it. If you get it the routine way they say it takes more than 6 weeks. To be totally honest mine got to me faster than this, but the real reason I stress the importance of it is because some study abroad programs wont even consider you if you do not have this already, and all of them require you get it before are 100% cleared to come (plus you need it to get your visa)

Noomber twoo

Learn about the different programs your school has and what is required to go to them. And actually research it! Just hearing from someone else "oh you should go here" sounds great and convinces many people they should go to wherever that is but please, Puleeze do not do this. You need to figure out what you want out of this experience and then select the location that best suits your needs. Want to not push your graduation back? Find a school that has courses you need for graduation. Care about understanding what you are learning? Find a school that has more classes in your native tongue (I would assume English if you are understanding all of the linguistic jokes I's be makin', it's not like you are a linguist right. Right?) want to just have fun and party all the time? Go to UTK where they butt chug (shame you shouldn't bring that up. Plus that isn't study abroad) Regardless you need to research about the school. If the thought of researching for study abroad sounds like it is a lot of work, then don't, but when the place you picked causes you problems don't come crying to me. No really. I do not want to deal with a teary eyed you… oh the salty messiness. Ugh. But honestly, most schools give credits… is that right? Credits? Credit? I think it's usually 1. okay most schools give a credit for studying abroad anyway, so at least put a credit's (that sounds plural but it is not) worth of work in to preparing for it.

三番目

So now you have your passport to pass the ports and programed your program in your plans, and are about ready to hit this guy making corny jokes. Now what do you do? There are still like 10 months before this whole study abroad thing anyways. Well aside from the fact that many programs have really early sign-ups so you should already be applying to the one you want, you also are starting to notice that they want you to have this thing called money… and they want you to have a lot of it. Typically they want you to have enough to cover your living expenses for the whole year. Because everyone has that laying around. Except for that person earlier who has no family nor possessions, they have nothing. If you happen to be like them and have no money lying around then I'm sorry but you are screwed… I hope you really didn’t believe me. In all actuality there are several ways to get money for studying abroad. Many are very helpful and useful, but you can't rely on all of them to be in your bank account by the time your program requires it. If there is any way to start saving now you should do it. Now there are several ways to help with the money, but I'll talk about them in another post. Just know that even the projected amounts are just living expenses and you will almost undoubtable need more.

Number 4

For those now on a limited budget (good for you saving for this trip) you may want to start planning the things you will need to buy before you go. This is a scary step and often you find you did it wrong if you wait until the last second to do it. This one is also hard enough that I will actually make another post about "what to sneak in" but just know that you should try and get things that you need to order, sooner rather than later. Like that really nice camera lens so I could record myself talking about Japan. Only took 4 weeks to get to me. So glad I didn't wait until a week before leaving to try and get that one, otherwise I would be typing all of these posts…

#5

Ensure you have amenities to communicate with family, and try to have a cost effective way to do so. I would say the basic thing to do is make sure you have internet where you are going. If you are staying in dorms at the school you are studying abroad at then having internet is probably a given, but how do you contact your family. If you want to video call your family there are several free services you can use such as skype. Phone services are a little different. If you want to just bring your own phone from home to a different country then you may be a little surprised to find they have big up-charges for international calls. And not small up-charges either. For me I found the cheapest way for me to phone family was to use google voice, a free service, to make calls to my family. Before I left the country I set up a permanent phone number attached to my Gmail account which I can make calls from straight from Gmail. Then just for international calls I added $10 to my account so that I could make international calls. Turns out that it wasn't necessary. Calls to my family did not count as international because I set up a phone number that was local for them, the only calls that cost me anything were the ones to people in Japan. By the way, after a year in Japan I still have more than $7 left from that initial $10. there are many other ways to do things just like this so go out and research them. You may want to buy a watch that can have world time separate though so you don’t call home at 2:00 in the morning though.

Well this post has gotten a bit long. Want to see the rest of my top ten? Subscribe! also feel free to leave a comment down below. I would love to hear from you.