How to Study Abroad For People that Just Might Find Themselves Facing the Same Problems I Faced

The following is simply advice I wish I had gotten before I came abroad. I've been toiling all week, and I've finally narrowed my suggestions down to a field of some specific Do's and Don't's. Obviously, I can only really speak for my own preferences. I can sort of speak for Prague, and electrically (very important), I can only speak for continental Europe. Even so, many of the things I have to say are extremely important life lessons that everyone should read and reread every night before they go to bed (more hits, what's up).

Do..

1) ..come to Europe with a lot of money.

I don't think this is exactly a secret, but it is a truth. I was fortunate that Prague was far and away the cheapest of all the cities I visited, and probably the cheapest of any European city considered part of the study abroad rolodex. Still, you need tha paper. Even if you book everything in super advance and find crazy cheap deals to the most off-season of places (undoubtedly featuring the most uncomfortable of flights at the most inconvenient of times), you're gonna spend no less than $200 a weekend, all things considered. And let's be honest, having to fly out of anywhere between the hours of 10 PM and 10 AM is a stone cold pain in the ass, so you're probably gonna be paying a premium for normal hours. On top of that, having to sleep in a massive orphanage-style hostel room with 3 different groups of travelers (2 of which will most certainly be comprised of european dudes who wanna get drunk and loud) is also not preferable, so you're probably going to be spending a little extra skrill on 2-4 person rooms in nicer hostels, if not springing for a clean 3-star hotel.

If you're living in Prague, I'd say you could have an exciting but budgeted semester for $6,000, and you could have a very comfortable, jetsetting semester for $10,000. If you live in a Eurozone country (or anywhere else not in Central Eastern Europpe), you should probably add $2,000-3,000 to those estimates.

2) ..some cultural research before you arrive.

I didn't exactly hit the Prague section of the lib too hard before I came here, and it's something I regret. I suggest that even before you select where you're going to study abroad, you actually familiarize yourself with the culture and the language (i.e., more than "good beer; cheap"), but at the very least, if you find out you're going to spend almost four months of your young life in a place that is without a doubt historically and culturally rich, you owe it to yourself to do some homework. It's not like I didn't make friends because I didn't know when the huns or turks or whoever occupied Bohemia and Moravia, but I am leaving here with what I feel is inadequate knowledge about this centuries old important European city where I've lived, which sort of translates to 'missed opportunity.'

3) ..study abroad with a friend or two in the same place or nearby places.

Now I can't speak for this positive per say, but I can speak for the opposite. I came to Prague knowing no one (well, obviously I was familiar with the Facebook profile pictures of all the girls listed in my program, as well as information not kept private, but whatever), and knowing no one was one of my major reasons for coming. I don't necessarily think the solo-Dolo semester was the wrong choice (particularly because I'm leaving here with what I hoped to achieve: a better appreciation of who and what I have at home), but I do think having a pre-established friendship in Prague would have facilitated more exploration, my general insufficiency of which is a major regret.

4) ..set up a "Strong VPN."

Now this is exactly what a scholar such as myself who is already predisposed to not wanting go on tours/leave his room unless necessary should not have access to, but I did it anyway. Do not ask me how this works (does anyone know how anything works anymore? I realized this the other day--if someone asked me how pants are made/work, I would have NO idea), but it does. What's "it," you may ask? "It" is the ability to watch Netflix and Hulu and make USA-toll-free Skype calls. "It" is achieved by visiting http://www.strongvpn.com/ and paying them $21 in exchange for three months of access to the inexhaustible wells of online American entertainment (re: details - their customer service live chat is super helpful). You probably won't thank me in the end because you'll have spent your final two weeks of the semester storming through the first two seasons of The Office instead of seeing the beautiful city that lies before you, but you will, arguably, laugh more.

5) ..establish a hobby or a project to do while you're abroad.

If your program is as academically rigorous as mine was, you are going to have a LOT of time on your hands. Start a blog (and actually write more than two posts), set goals for things you really want to see and go take pictures (if you're that type -- blogging has been in my bloodline for generations so I didn't really have a choice in the matter), whatever. Just have something in mind that you can do when you find yourself swimming in free time.

6) ..eat-in.

Obviously one of the major features of traveling anywhere is the food. I'm not saying you should purge yourself and eat nothing but chicken breasts all week and pack a cooler of leftovers for weekend picnics. This isn't my mom's car ride to Bethany; this is Europe, and this shit is fancy. You can live a little. But the more quickly you get in the habit of buying groceries and cooking for yourself at home, the more quickly you will save at least $60 a week (and that's in cheapo Prague). After a month of eating-in more than eating out, you'll probably be able to afford an additional weekend trip.

7) ..the following regarding electricity conversion:

For some very unnecessary reason, this was a major, major mental roadbloack of mine during departure preparation. Here's what I learned (this is what I was referring to when I said I can only speak for continental Europe--UK has different system):

*Note: I acknowledge that the following very well could be the least technical explanation of electricity of all time. But I'm cool with that, because if you're anything like me, you have no idea how anything works.

**Note: This could also be incorrect.

US outlets spit 120 Volts of electricity. Continental European electricity comes through the wall at a blazing 230 Volts. Many US appliances have a functional range of 100-240V. You can found out this information in a number of places, namely: google, the appliance's manual, even the plug itself sometimes has a number printed onto it. If you discover that your appliance does have this range, all you will need is a "adapter," which looks something like this:

I recommend having three of these (I got by with two, though).

If you discover that your appliance does not have this range, and operates only at a specific voltage (probably 120), then (I think) you will need what is called a "converter," which does something I cannot even begin to explain. My advice, though: just don't bring that appliance, and buy a temporary Euro version to use for the semester. Specifically, do not bring your electric toothbrush, or your beard trimmer, because they will not work in Europe (so, sadly, you'll have to become accustomed to the 80% clean feeling you get from a pedestrian manual toothbrush).

Also, for "three-pronged" appliances like many laptop chargers, you need to visit your local hardware store and pick up another sort of adapter that effectively makes your appliance two-pronged. I have no knowledge of any technical terms in the electricity-conversion world, but if my amigo at 187th-and-Beaumont-Hardware could understand figure gestures and my meekly repeated, "dos a tres," "dos a tres," chances are your local shop purveyor will be able to as well.

8) ..bring your own toiletries and medicine (and we already learned why not to bring an overabundance of travel miniatures). And bring more than enough, especially deodorant and face wash. Seriously, shit is different over here, folks. Be prepared.

9) ..bring a collapsable travel pillow. You'll thank me.

10) ..figure out when your program ends well in advance, and book a ROUND TRIP flight.

Now, this is a contentious point. One never really knows what they're gonna want to do six to eight months in the future when they're in Europe without any obligations. If you're studying abroad in the Spring, there's a damn good chance you'll want to travel because it will be so nice outside. If you're studying abroad next fall, there's a damn good chance you're gonna want to get the fliggity fluck out of Europe because it's so cold. Either way, in six to eight months, you're probably going to have limited cash flow and an uncontrollable desire to return home to what and who you know best. Therefore, buying a round trip flight at the outset is definitely worth considering because you will probably save at least $600 (I would have..).

Do not..

1) ..use discount websites to book your flights.

This is extremely contentious (you can't see them but there are multiple electrode skirmishes happening very close to this sentence). Having missed a flight I booked on Expedia, I will now say that it would have been less expensive for me to pay the 10-20% extra by booking all of my other flights directly through their airline. Now, the lesson here really should be: don't miss flights. Yes, I suggest you do not miss your flights, but it's probably going to happen once, and if it does, you will be in much more favorable and much less expensive circumstances if you booked through the airline.

In this same vein, I'll declare it here and now: all those discount websites offer the exact same fares on the exact same flights. If you have to pick one, I recommend Expedia (and do not recommend Student Universe) because their customer service is superior. But honestly, I'd go straight through the airline, even if it means spending an extra $60.

2) ..buy a shitload of travel locks.

Unless you plan to sleep in alleys or the woods, these are completely unnecessary. Granted, I never shared a room with someone I didn't know, and that's a game-changer. But as I mentioned above, you probably aren't going to want to share a room with a bunch of stinky European backpackers anyway, so save your money on travel locks and spend it on hostel upgrades.

Seriously, when I cleaned out my room today, I found like 9 luggage locks. I actually used a travel lock once, and I only did it because I was pining for a reason to make good on some of $50 I dropped on locks before I left. Fucking waste. Don't do this.

3) ..get hoodwinked by the convenience stores they put outside of security.

This is one of the more embarrassing things I consistently did over the course of the semester, and it's also just common fucking sense, but do not buy a big-ass three-liter bottle of water before you go through airport security. Not only is it a waste of money, but you look like an asshole standing by the trashcans (that are packed with half-full bottles of water) chugging water like an ironman competitor between legs 2 and 3. Just internalize it now: buy water (and anything else with a 3+ ounce/1.7 liter capacity) after you pass through security.

4) ..book unreasonably early flights.

I heard the "Oh I'm just gonna go out and stay out 'til I leave for the airport" line at least once a weekend, and then every monday that same asshole is telling stories about what he had to do because he missed his flight. The out-to-airport mctwist sounds great in theory, but fails in practice. Inevitably, you'll get home two to three hours before you leave, drunk pack, and then pass out and miss your flight because you don't feel like going to the airport four hours early. Do yourself and your parents' credit card a favor, book flights during business hours, and if you can manage, don't go out the night before. No night out is ever worth missing a flight.

5) ..eat a fourth meal at SuperMac's in Galway, Ireland.

In a word or two, SuperMac's is the gastronomic equilavent of the Fordham Rd. WhiteCastle. And just as in the Bronx whenever somebody half-jokingly suggests copping a late night crave case and having a grand ol' drunk, gassy time, you know in your heart that nothing of the sort should actually happen because everyone that contributes to demolishing the case will be a markedly less pleasant person for the following 48 to 96 hours. When you hear SuperMac's, you say no.

6) ..at Matthew Williams' residence at Dublin City College, do NOT come back from a strong night out with a loaf of white-bread on your person.

If this is unavoidable (been there, it's okay), I advise you to NOT clutch onto said loaf with both of your hands. However, if that loaf of bread absolutely needs your two-armed attention until it meets its maker, then for God's sake, do not walk across the extremely soggy grass in the courtyard and slip on your fat ass. Because, seeing as you're clutching bread, your options for getting back up are a bit limited, so you'll probably slip again. And then the next morning you'll realize that you imported well over a square yard of mud into Matt's house, mostly via your expensive wool overcoat. Before you can wash your coat or jeans, though, you have to physically scrape the soft earth that became caked onto your clothing overnight. THEN you toss your jeans and your expensive wool overcoat through a cycle only to discover that your expensive wool overcoat is dry clean only, and that over the course of the next couple weeks, said coat will start to pill more and more, giving the clumsy-bread-protecting owner of said coat a progressively more homeless look.


I have more to add, but I think these qualify for post status.

If you're curious, at present I am sitting on a desk chair in room 316 of the Prague Ruzyne Airport Courtyard Marriott, and I'm not in the least bit unhappy. Yes, I did have to wait in line for four hours today, but once I felt the down count in these hotel pillows my troubles vanished. I (hope I) fly from Prague to Warsaw at 2:30p tomorrow, followed by a 10 hour flight between two of the most beautiful places on earth: Warsaw, Poland and Newark, New Jersey. And then I hop in a cab to the Newark train station, try not to get raped while I wait for the train, and if all goes well I roll into DC between midnight and 2 AM Tuesday. But that's IF all goes well. Well hasn't exactly been a theme of my departure yet, so I'm not counting chickens.

I hope my loyal fanbase has been putting forth their best effort to teach themselves entire semesters worth of material in one or two very long sittings. Anyone going abroad next semester can look forward to not having to do anything of that sort. I, on the other hand, am making my final strides back toward reality, and it feels damn good.