The semester will go by quicker than you think! For those of you who are living overseas, take the time to check in with yourself and slow down when you need to!

Here are a few tips and tricks on maximizing your time while you’re abroad:   

What Do You Want to Accomplish?

Set goals for yourself about what you want to accomplish whilst abroad. Keep these realistic, but if there’s a nearby city you want to explore or activity you want to get involved in at school, having a “study abroad bucket list” of sorts is a great way to organize extracurriculars.  

The key word here is realistic, be mindful of how busy your semester will be and prioritize additional adventures accordingly so you won’t be stressed out by Week 3. If there are places you want to visit, it’s never too early or too late to start planning. Don’t wait for friends to get on-board with your tentative plans - prices for cheap tickets and good accommodations will come and go!

Stay Connected With Home 

If you’re missing your family, find an accommodating time, per week or per month, that you can schedule and look forward to talking with them. Keep a group chat open on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger so you can stay updated with all of your friends at once. 

You might even send postcards from places you’ve visited. Staying connected is important, because it can alleviate loneliness and encourage you to exchange stories with your family so you’re both up-to-date with what’s new.

Keep A Positive Attitude

Mid-semester can be tough, and final exams can be difficult when it’s not the same education system as America’s. Besides school, it’s totally normal to feel overwhelmed when trying new things, but this can actually benefit travelers to stay open-minded. 

Be optimistic - there will be times when you’re being challenged acclimating to a new country and all that it brings, but staying positive will only make your experience better. It’s almost guaranteed that you will come across moments that grant cultural misunderstanding, whether that be language barriers or situations dealing with cultural shock, that you will just have to accept and move on from. 

Staying flexible and having a good sense of humor when things like this arise, can aid funny stories later on, by finding a way to create an optimistic frame of mind. Also remind yourself that your time is limited while you’re abroad, so it’s still a fantastic opportunity to learn and grow. 

Document As Many Memories As You Can  

Make friends from other countries, enjoy your time with your homestay family, and try new things as much as you can. It’s amazing how we can pack thousands of photos into our phones, where we can save our memories from any daytrip we may take. However, try not to live through your phone, and look up to enjoy your surroundings. Too often we end up glued to our phones, snapchatting or instagramming a moment without being present with those experiences in real time. 

You might try documenting it in a journal at the end of your day, so that you can immerse yourself while an experience is happening and reflect on it in the evening through writing. Another idea is creating a blog or website that your family and friends can follow along with during your semester. That way, your network back home can read when they have time, and you have something to go back and glance over whenever you want. 

Regardless of a mode of documentation, take opportunities to explore your host country and make the most of it. Check out “5 Ways to Keep Study Abroad Experiences Alive” to read about a few ways to keep your study abroad experience alive once you return home!