7 Things to Remember Before You Leave
"The Pier" in St. Andrews
1. Talk to your academic advisor to discuss both the courses you will be taking abroad, and those courses you will need to take when returning. Studying abroad will be a waste if the courses you take aren’t going to count for credit at your home college or university.
2. Look into calling card that will charge your overseas calls to your home number. Better yet, download Skype and get a web cam. Its probably the easiest and cheapest way to communicate with people from home, as well as people that you are abroad with.
3. Make travel plans including transportation from the airport to your university.
4. Make 3 photocopies of the INFORMATIONAL pages of your passport. Carry one in your bags but separate from your passport. Leave one in your home in the U.S., and leave one at your home abroad.
5. Start your trip with about $300 in foreign currency to get you through your first few days abroad. Exchange your money before you get to your country of destination. More often than not, local banks will give you the best exchange rate, and the lowest conversion fees.
6. Don’t forget to take a copy of your birth certificate, proof of health insurance, a calling card, and an International Student Identity Card.
7. And finally, I would think about buying a travel adapter plug. It sucks not being able to charge your laptop when you finally land because the plug from your charger doesn’t match the local outlets.
Most of this information came from the 2009-2010 Pre-Departure Manual distributed by the College of the Holy Cross Study Abroad Program.
Heres a link to Anderson Coopers blog. His list is a little more in depth, and very practical for people traveling outside of English speaking countries: 28 Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Started Traveling.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below and I’ll get back to you!
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I'm a 23 year old college grad, and during my junior year abroad in Scotland, I came to the realization that it's hard to know what you want to do in this world if you've never seen it. With that in mind, I decided to study abroad again during the 2011-12 academic year, this time in Beijing, China. Read more
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