The Truth Behind Abroad

When you come across almost any junior in college, he or she will be talking about only one topic: going abroad. You’ll hear an abundance of questions ranging from “Where are you going?” to “What program are you going through?” These questions are often followed by the ever so familiar, “I’m so jealous,” “I miss abroad so much,” and “I wish I could go back.”

Often times, second semester junior year involves trekking halfway across the world to a new country of sometimes random choosing to embark on the most surreal and unexplainable experience any 20-something will ever get to do.

Although there are differences between each country and program, almost everyone who goes abroad comes back to the U.S. with similar difficult experiences and shared inside jokes that annoy most people who didn’t spend four months jet setting around without a care in the world.

First of all, everyone has to go through the unfortunate ordeal that is trying to find flights while abroad. No matter if you are in Barcelona, Florence, Paris or Prague, every abroad student has had the terrible experience of flying through one of the bootleg airlines that gave you the best deal for that weekend flight to Amsterdam.

In trying to find the cheapest flight possible, since the Euro makes any flight more expensive than your initial flight to and from Europe, most people abroad tend to resort to using airlines such as RyanAir, where you are never assigned a seat and are barely allowed a bring a carry-on, causing a frenzy to get on the plane as quickly as humanely possible. Combine this with the random, surprise fees RyanAir charges for forgetting to check-in online the night before your flight, and these airlines are the bane of any abroad student’s existence.

Then, trying to find the cheapest hostel possible, while still receiving hotel amenities once you were there is always a struggle. Being able to pay a measly 90 euros a person for two nights at the Mosaic House in Prague and getting there to find the best beds you’ve had in all of Europe, along with a waterfall shower, is like striking gold or getting Gusta Pizza in Florence for free.

But for the few issues that occur while studying abroad, there are tons of great things that happen and awesome benefits to living in a new country for the semester.  There’s one main word you can hear everyone talk about when they come back from abroad: food, food, food.

No matter what country you’re living in, you’re bound to gain the abroad equivalent of the Freshman 15 because the food is amazing, no matter where you visit or live. Whether it’s Bo De Bi in Barcelona, Tony’s in Rome, Bohemia Bagel in Prague (for the only (normal) bacon, egg and cheese that you’re going to find while abroad) or Pancake Bakery in Amsterdam, you can never get enough real Italian pasta or authentic Spanish tapas. It’s inevitable that everyone will gain some weight, but the food is definitely worth it.

Then of course there are the sites everyone visits and the activities that everyone does. There are a variety of death trap activities in Interlaken such as paragliding, canyon jumping or skydiving. Then there are always the more cultural activities of visiting the Heineken factory, the Anne Frank House and the Bulldog coffee shop all in one day in Amsterdam.

Abroad is just one of those times in your life where the crappy things seem funny and will be great stories for later on and where the amazing things are just that much better because they’re happening with your friends while you’re traveling the world. So, whether you spent your nights hitting up Opium in Barcelona or Space in Florence, people who went abroad will always be able to relate to one another in the best ways possible.