Here are the top 5 things that surprised me about studying
abroad:
1. Weather
Both times I studied abroad, the weather caught me off
guard. For some reason, I have a picture in my head that the weather in Europe
is just perfect and never uncomfortably cold or hot. Yeah, that’s not how it
works. When I was in Prague in the summer, the weather was pretty hot. There
were days that were really nice but majority of the time I was swimming in my
own sweat. When I was in Rome for the spring semester, I did not expect all of
January and February to be a torrential downpour. Luckily, I had the right
clothes and shoes for this type of weather, but still, the sun was a sight for
sore eyes once it finally came out of hiding. My advice is to consider all
kinds of weather when packing. Take clothes and shoes that are versatile and
can work with either hot or cold or wet or dry or muddy or just straight up
cruel (like when it rains ice on you while you are eating gelato in previously
happy weather). Layering is the best, you’ll be thankful you brought that
jacket or light undershirt when the weather drops or rises 30 degrees in the
same day. However, this isn’t an excuse to over pack. It’s just another reason
to pack smarter!
2. Allergies
My allergies in Europe were awful. I did not take into
account that everyone smokes cigarettes everywhere. Literally, everywhere. Both
in Prague and Rome, my sinuses were nuts. Most mornings I’d wake up with a dry
mouth due to not being able to breathe from my nose the whole night.
Attractive, I know. My inhaler was my best friend during those dark times. My
word of advice is to bring allergy medication, whether or not you have allergy
issues, it’s better to be safe. What helped me the most was buying local honey
and eating a teaspoon every morning. My body eventually got adjusted to the
environment and I felt better as the weeks passed. Except for all the second
hand smoke, that never really got better.
3. Grocery shopping mistranslations
Grocery shopping in Rome was a lot easier than it was in
Prague. This is definitely because of Czech being a pretty tough language. My
first time buying essentials in Prague resulted in buying Kefir milk instead of
regular milk, which is a fermented milk drink, and porridge instead of oatmeal,
which was delicious. I also bought scented toilet paper by mistake, which would
not have been a big problem except for the fact that it was peach scented and
that’s my least favorite scent in the world. Lesson learned. After that trip, I
downloaded an offline translator onto my phone and made sure to check it if I
wasn’t 100% sure of what I was buying. I really recommend doing that. It may
make you look like a foreigner, but it’ll save you from pouring fermented milk
on your perfectly wonderful cereal. (Kefir milk pairs really well with making a
marinade for salmon, btw… I bought a gallon of that stuff)
4. Heating
We got to Rome on a day that was pouring ice cold rain. I
was drenched when I finally reached the apartment and just wanted to warm up,
except that my apartment was probably colder than it was outside and I
basically froze… not really, but it was pretty cold. Sometimes you can be
unlucky and your apartment radiators just won’t work no matter how many times
you try and get it fixed. Our radiators finally worked about a month in, and
boy was that a happy day. By now we were pretty accustomed to being cold all
the time that the on/off time for the heat didn’t really affect us as much.
Luckily for us, we didn’t have a problem with shortage of hot water. It seemed
as though you either get hot water or heat, after hearing other apartments
complain that their showers were too cold. (I would’ve taken that over no heat
any day) My regret was not bringing a comfortable sweater/sweatshirt that I
could cocoon in while I was in my apartment. For some reason, finding one was
harder than it should’ve been. However, having limited heating was a blessing
as well as it really made me want to leave the apartment and go explore
(centrally heated spaces) in Rome.
5. Call your bank
One thing I forgot to do before leaving the US was to call
my bank and let them know that I was going abroad. This was an actual problem
because as soon as I tried to get money out of an ATM in Rome, they locked my
card. Pretty inconvenient. I was able to call an international number to fix
this but it could’ve been avoided easily. Another thing I wish I had known
about was getting an international debit/ credit card. You avoid the currency
exchange fee when you use said card and also get points for using it. Definitely
not a necessity, but nice if you know you want to travel a lot for an extended
period of time.
Even with these surprises I would not have traded my
experiences abroad for anything. You learn to grow from these mistakes. The
positive surprises outweighed the negative drastically as well. My final tip is
to try and be as prepared as you can before heading out of the country BUT take
surprises head on and positively as they are unavoidable. As long as you don’t
buy peach scented toilet paper (I will never recover), every surprise has a
solution.
--
Ayesha Erkin, Peer Advisor
--
Ayesha Erkin, Peer Advisor
