Studying abroad is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a period when moving to another country for a short stay is easy. It is a time to explore new cultures and have a taste of the feelings of living a different life. I completed a program at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, a country that I had never been to. It is not all sunshine and rainbows (literally, there was so much rain) and the experiences that you will have will mostly be unique to you and others in your program. “How was studying abroad?” is not a question that can be answered simply.
The first month that you’re abroad is exciting, and consists of meeting new people and getting settled into your dorm and the new city you’re in. This is especially true when you move to a country where the legal drinking age is lower, where social events include going to bars and bonding over a beer. The moment I got my bike, the feeling that I was not here for an extended vacation settled in.
The second month is when you start to adopt a routine. You know how long it takes to get to school, how long it takes to study for a class, which cafe is your favorite to study at, and which friends you would like to meet up with for dinner. Soon, you feel like a local. Friends from back home would come to visit, and I was proudly able to navigate the system, even using the minimal amount of Dutch I knew to interpret the street signs to become the designated tour guide. My friend, Cate, and I studied abroad during the same period and managed to visit each other in our respective cities: hers being Copenhagen and mine being Utrecht. We shared the sheer excitement of showing each other how much we’ve settled into our temporary new lives and how much we’ve been out and about.
I would imagine that the study abroad experience might be lonely for introverts and homebodies. The ideal experience is being able to explore a new country and meet new people, both of which require you to put yourself out there. Even though I would categorize myself as on the extroverted end, I quickly became tired of introducing myself. I craved having more solid conversations rather than repeating how San Diego is an awesome, sunny city. It was as if I could just record the conversation and play it every time I met someone new. The best decision that I made was participating in Welcome Week, an optional program for international students to be introduced to the city. It was there when I met my friends who defined my time abroad.
The fear of missing out while studying abroad is especially prominent when you have such a prevalent social life back home. The biggest aspect of my life in San Diego are my friends and the ultimate frisbee club team. I had to celebrate my birthday abroad, with new people that I’d only known for a month. This was a form of me stepping out of my comfort zone, as I am not typically one to announce when it’s my birthday. Therefore, I had to choose between celebrating on my own or planning my own birthday. I chose the latter. I also enjoy trying new cuisines, therefore whenever I found an interesting restaurant, it made me miss my go-to group of foodie friends from San Diego. Everyone back home is moving along in their lives, and it feels like watching a movie when you learn about how they’re growing and changing.
Coming back to UC San Diego is an adjustment that I was not expecting to run into. Arguably, the transition is harder than coming from high school as the courses that I am taking are typically upper-division major courses in contrast to lower-division general education ones. Furthermore, there are significantly more deadlines to meet at UCSD, from quizzes to homework to discussion sessions. In Europe, the only grade you have to worry about is your final, and either a midterm or a final paper; it is safe to say that the environment is a more laid-back, go-at-your-own-pace type of situation. It was validating to learn that my fellow study abroad friends were also having a hard time adjusting back to the quick pace of the quarter system.
Although everyone says it, studying abroad is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime experience; there is no other time when you can easily move to another country for a few months and have the opportunity to be so involved in the culture. Novel experiences are exciting, and it takes a certain amount of intrinsic motivation to be able to make the most of them. Missing out on happenings back home can be depressing at times; however, it is only temporary and I promise you that your friends are just as excited to hear about your time abroad and miss you just as much.