this is your ULTIMATE GUIDE to studying abroad. trust me. (and you’re welcome). I broke down everything you need to know and do in 10 simple tips
hey everyone welcome back to my channel
today I’m gonna be new tips for
studying abroad so if you are interested
in studying abroad or if you’re about to
study abroad this video will hopefully
help you I recently studied abroad in
Paris this past quarter and I picked up
a few things while I was there so these
are my tips hopefully they help you and
let’s get started
my first tip is to get a phone plan that
works so whether you are sticking with
your American phone plan or you’re
buying an international one make sure it
works and like you can use your data and
your phone and everything I personally
didn’t buy an international plan or I
didn’t buy like a foreign phone plan I
have sprint
and sprint actually works
internationally and it’s included in
your regular plan so make sure you
contact your American service provider
and ask if they do that so I know for
sure t-mobile and Sprint both have
international roaming all you have to do
is turn on data roaming on your phone
and you can use your phone abroad in
Paris a lot of my friends used orange
Mobile or orange and free mobile and I
know one of my friends said that she
liked free mobile a lot more so you can
check that out I know that they’re not
too expensive and they’re pretty
affordable for what you get so
definitely recommend that because you
want a working phone it’s really helpful
it’s good for safety and if you’re ever
lost you can use Google Maps you can
call someone just like it’s good to have
a phone that you can use tip number two
is to bring a pair of shoes that you
don’t mind trashing and make sure
they’re comfortable so I personally
brought my fans don’t bring shoes that
are uncomfortable because you’re never
gonna wear it and that’s just extra
space near luggage also for example I
brought my Steve not in trusty boots and
I wear those things everywhere but they
were in such bad shape and not like they
were like teetering on the edge of gonna
throw away so I brought those and then I
just wore them all the time and parents
didn’t care and then before I left to go
back home I just like to toss them out
because they were like just destroyed
I’ll insert a picture of what happened
to the sole of my boot of one of my
boots um yeah it was a sad moment tip
number three is do not over pack
I know it’s hard I had such a hard time
I was even texting my friend who had
studied abroad already like what I
should pack and everything and she was
telling me like pack your suitcase and
then take out half of it and I was like
girl I don’t do that luckily a couple of
my friends visited me while I was abroad
and so I kind of like gave them stuff to
take home but definitely don’t over pack
I didn’t think I would buy that many
things while I was abroad but I was
wrong my fourth tip is to always carry a
reusable bag with you and you guys have
no idea how much this comes in handy I
just always have one now in my backpack
so sometimes like after school I want to
go grocery shopping but I don’t want to
pay extra for the paper bag even though
it’s like ten cents you can make
impromptu grocery shopping things or
like it things get too heavy you can
just like toss it in that bag it’s just
really useful just it’s it’s like it
weighs nothing so it doesn’t hurt to
have it
my fifth tip is a little weird and a
little random but it is that if you have
like a certain amount of time to spare I
would say like maybe minutes to
minutes and you need to use the restroom
I would recommend going to a museums
restroom because or I guess this only
applies in Europe or Spring France
specifically I don’t know but you get
free entry because you’re a student so
you can get into the museum for free and
then you get a free toilet and it’s
clean so and if you want afterwards you
can walk around the museum it’s like a
win-win situation depends on what museum
you go to I went to do your say and the
line was like really short and usually
when you have a student card you can
just like walk in and they just
look at it and you can go in so I did
that and I was like what a fun little
fun way to use the restroom my sixth tip
is to change your phone language to the
country’s language that you are studying
abroad in’ since i was in france I
changed my phone’s language to French so
that I can learn the language a little
better and to kind of like always see it
and it was good for a while I kind of
stopped after like a month because I was
like I can’t I can’t do this anymore but
I would highly recommend it if you are
learning French or Spanish or whatever
language that you are learning
I would definitely recommend changing
your phone language to it just because
you’re on your phone so much every
single day and just seeing the same
words every single day really helped my
seventh tip is to be yourself but also
try to improve yourself so I know for me
personally my example is I spoke up a
lot more in class usually before I
studied abroad I never really spoke up
in class I was kind of like well I’m not
gonna answer because first of all and I
got like the answers obvious or I don’t
want to sound dumb or if I get it wrong
and all this stuff
and then when I was abroad the
classrooms and like the class size was a
lot smaller and I knew every single
person in the room including the
professor and everything and I just felt
a lot more comfortable and so I started
speaking up more in class and I just I
was I’m really proud of myself for doing
that because it’s something that I
didn’t do before and I feel like it
really did help my whole learning
environment in my learning experience so
it doesn’t necessarily have to be that
like doesn’t necessarily have to be
speak up in class more I’m just like
anything just trying to push yourself
out of your comfort zone because I think
your studying abroad is just the perfect
opportunity to do so my eighth tip is
kind of related to what I said
previously but it is to get out of your
comfort zone and be more open usually
when you’re abroad you are with other
students not necessarily from your same
University and I know for me we had a
lot of students from different schools
around you
States and then I was also in a French
University and that class was just a
bunch of international people and I
think it’s really important to be
open-minded and I feel like taking a
class at the French University with the
international students made me more
open-minded because I would say that I’m
pretty open-minded already prior to
going but I think just learning their
different mindsets was very cool and not
only that it also applies to the country
that you are studying abroad in a lot of
the times if you’re not open mind to the
culture like that’s kind of when the
whole culture shock comes into play when
you’re just like for example if I was
going and I was just like very American
minded I was just like why is this
service so slow why is no-one checking
up on me like a wire they like this
that’s so dumb then I just like ruin the
whole experience and ruins like half of
your time there because probably the
second half you’re gonna get used to it
I would just recommend being more
open-minded I feel like I did in I was
telling my friends this like I didn’t
experience culture shock while I was
there I was experienced reverse culture
shock when I came back but when I was
there I didn’t experience it because I
just feel like I was so open-minded and
I was just very flexible with everything
being open-minded is just a great way to
open yourself up to new opportunities
and you’re just gonna have a better time
overall my ninth tip is to document your
experience in some sort of way and
whether it’s like a blog a journal a
YouTube channel a tumblr like whatever
it is document it because the time is
going to go by so fast and I am so mad
at myself for not making a tumblr or
something to document my experience
because I like I’ve logged and I tried
to blog but those two things I feel like
I put so much pressure on myself to do
that the content never comes out live
make sense but I wish I did like a
tumbler and just like did JB entries
just like as a journal kind of thing
because journaling takes me like hours
so I probably should have done that but
yeah like it’s just really nice to look
back on and time just time will fly by
and you’re just if you didn’t tell him
in it you’re gonna wish you did and you
can’t relived for months my tenth tip is
to travel but also remember to explore
the city that you were studying abroad
in I know this was difficult for me
because traveling around Europe is so
cheap when you are in Europe but I was
like I’m also studying abroad in Paris
because I like Paris so like I need to
explore Paris more so I tried to explore
Paris during the weekdays and then the
weekends I would travel but I feel like
if you go through your study abroad
experience and at the end of it you like
don’t even know much about the old like
the city that you studied abroad in kind
of sad so definitely remember to explore
your own city like it’s good to travel
definitely take advantage of it but
remember that you chose that city for a
reason
and no no discover it more on that same
note I did travel a lot while I was
abroad so if you guys want more trowel
specific study abroad video give this
video a thumbs up so I know those are
all the tips I have for you I’m sorry if
this video it was kind of all over the
place
I was kind of rambling a lot but if you
guys liked it be sure to give it a
thumbs up comment down below if you want
more study abroad videos and be sure to
subscribe to my second channel at the
classified life because all of my study
abroad blogs are going up on there and
I’ll talk to guys next week