About Me:

Thanks for taking a read, I’m going to keep this short and sweet.  I’m a 20 year old college student at the College of the Holy Cross, majoring in Anthropology and Asian Studies.  After two years at a school which encompasses about 300 sq. yards, I figured it was time to venture out into the world for a year.  Fortunately, I landed at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, home of fish and chips, fairways, and firths (not to mention a legal drinking age of 18) .

I’m and avid golfer (probably the main reason I chose St. Andrews), although I’m not all that good.  They say students graduate from St. Andrews with two things – a degree and a good handicap – so I’m hoping my game will improve.  There’s 7 courses at the Links at St. Andrews, and I plan on playing every hole on every course.

I plan on traveling extensively since we have about 8 weeks of vacation built into the school year.  Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Munich, Paris, Prague, Rome, Vienna – you name it, I want to go there. (I’ve already made it to 3 of the 4 landmarks in my header, and a trip to see the fourth will be in the works shortly.)

Just in case there was any doubt, I do plan on going to class as well.  It should be one hell of a year.

About The Study Abroad Blog:

I started The Study Abroad Blog as a resource for other students either considering studying abroad or who are already abroad. I know when I began the applying to go abroad, I had tons of questions about the application process, getting acclimated, course work, traveling, etc., and there were very few websites out there that were written by students addressing all these questions. What I found were a lot of corporate websites that had a ton of generic information that was probably written by a 40 year old adult who had never actually studied abroad.

The goal of my blog is to answer student’s questions and provide information via my experiences abroad. I cover everything from choosing a location, going through the student visa process, making travel arrangements, what to bring, what to not bring, what to do when you get to your abroad university, what to do while you’re there, and everything in between. While it’s a great way of keeping everyone back in the States up to date on my life abroad, it serves a much bigger purpose as a resource for the rest of the study abroad community.

I think travel is a huge part of the study abroad experience, and I’ve devoted a large portion of the blog to my travels around Europe. So far, I’ve been to the Scottish Highlands, Barcelona, Rome, London, Munich, Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam, Paris, and Dublin. My posts include stories from my own travels, as well as tips and advice on flying, booking hostels and hotels, packing, where to go, and what to see.

More important is my new 8 part email series I just wrote titled “Traveling Cheap: A Guide for the Student Traveler“, in which I provide advice on making it through major European cities for a weekend for under $300. As college students, I know most of us have to be low budget travelers, so I’ve compiled all of the research I’ve done and lessons I’ve learned about traveling together into one email series.

Like I say in my posts, studying abroad provides students with the ultimate opportunity to experience the world.  Travel, see new places, meet people from all over the world, experience new cultures, and yes, take some classes and learn stuff. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  So, while I’m spending a year in a rainy corner of Scotland, I figure I’ll use this blog to tell you all that I know and discover through the process.  If you want to study abroad, it will all eventually apply to you. You only get one chance to do this, let’s make the most of it.