Helpful Hints

I’ll be giving a lot of advice throughout this blog, but here are a few quick tips:

Keep a diary – You tell yourself that you will remember everything, but you won’t.  That’s what I told myself when I was abroad, and now I really wished I had wrote down my experiences.  It is also a good way to see how much you have grown from the beginning to the end of the trip.

Pack light – I know it might be painful for you to sort out your clothes and shoes and to pack only what you need, but TRUST ME, you can live without most of your wardrobe.  It makes it so much easier if you have less stuff to worry about getting lost.

Have a budget – Keep track of how much money you are spending, but don’t kill yourself trying to save every penny.  You have most likely saved money to go on this trip, so you should use it.  That’s what it’s for.  Bearing that in mind, it is very easy to blow money without even thinking about it.  Just keep in mind roughly how much you want to spend every week, but allow yourself to splurge every now and then.

Take advantage of every opportunity – If you want to do something, do it.  You may never get the chance to go back to that country, so you don’t want to miss out on an experience that you will regret not doing in the years to come.

Take TONS of pictures – I took over a thousand pictures when I was abroad and I don’t regret it at all.  These pictures are what you will be remembering your trip by.  Don’t feel stupid if you whip out your camera every second.  This is a momentous time in your life, and you need to document it.  For the rest of your life you will look back on those pictures and recall some of the best days of your life.  So get a camera card with lots of memory and fill it up!