Speaker 1: Hey what's up you guys it's Sophie and today I'm going to be doing another video about studying abroad. You guys have been asking me loads of questions about it kind of throughout the semester and one of the sorts of topics that people bring up a lot are maybe things to expect when you go abroad or things that happen that I wasn't expecting. So I decided to make a video called What People Don't Tell You About Studying Abroad because I feel like school and parents and friends and everything try to really like prepare you and there's some things that I feel like maybe I found out that were unexpected or something along the lines of that so I just have a list that I thought I would go through that hopefully will help out some of you guys who are planning to live abroad or study abroad or anything like that. So I just have a list here on my phone and I thought I would go through it with you because I feel like even though I was prepared in most ways there are some things that just look very different when you're watching somebody study abroad, you know when you're watching them on Facebook or something or you're seeing their incredible pictures. There's just some things that you don't realize. This has been a really rambly intro. I am sorry. So some of these may seem obvious but the first thing I wanted to mention is kind of the exhaustion that comes along with traveling. I feel like when I see people on Facebook who are studying abroad that I know and it all looks really glamorous, you know people are traveling places every single weekend and going to these incredible locations and I feel like it all just seems really glamorous and I personally found traveling to be absolutely exhausting. I actually didn't travel a bunch of weekends I was there. I think for over a month I just stayed in Prague every single weekend and kind of explored the city that I was actually living in instead of traveling somewhere else and that was really really refreshing and nice to do because I feel like I really got a sense of the city I was actually studying in and I didn't just keep leaving every weekend. But you know I was very exhausted from traveling. I mean getting up really early in the morning, sometimes taking overnight buses or overnight flights, not sleeping a lot so you can explore the city, you know general time zone changes or you know flight delays, long hours in airports, anything like that. I mean it really takes a toll on you after doing that every single weekend and so definitely if you're somebody who's studying abroad like don't feel weird about not traveling somewhere some weekends. Just stay in the city you're in and get to know that city really well because that's really beneficial also. The next thing I've listed and this kind of might apply more so to NYU students than maybe other people but that there's actual schoolwork involved with studying abroad. I feel like it's definitely like a misconception or maybe something from our parents' generation where when you study abroad it's kind of like a gap semester where you don't really have to work that hard. A lot of times people just have to get pass fail on a class. You just have to like get a C and you don't really have to do schoolwork. Now if you're an NYU student that's like totally not true because it's all NYU classes, NYU professors, you get grades, you have to do well, it goes into your GPA, everything like that. So you actually have to study and work hard and it's quite a lot of work and I mean I feel like a lot of people when I got back were asking like oh just like a party semester or whatever and for me it really was like just going to school in New York City like usual where you have to balance your social life with your schoolwork. Number three, this was something that's probably really preached about before you go to study abroad by your administration and this is that you might have trouble adjusting to a new country and you know don't be afraid to go to the guidance counselor, seek help if you need somebody to talk to you, it's perfectly normal to feel homesick, everything like that. They really drill into your mind before you leave and I think something that nobody told me is that sometimes people don't have trouble adjusting to a new country and that's not necessarily strange or a weird thing. Like when I moved to Prague I didn't feel like I was living in another country, it just felt like any other normal day. I don't know how to explain that but I was really prepared to feel homesick and I was really prepared to have a really hard time adjusting right away and I didn't really start to feel homesick until a couple of weeks before I actually came home towards the end of the semester. So it's perfectly normal if you feel homesick at the wrong time than you're supposed to or you know if you don't necessarily feel that sort of like weird sensation of being in a new country. I feel like it's totally normal. Number four is that not everyone will speak English everywhere you go. I feel like it is definitely told and even I've said this I think in videos before that most places speak English but definitely don't just assume that people will speak English. It's pretty, I think, rude to just go up to somebody and start speaking English in a foreign country. You should definitely learn kind of the greetings in each country, how to say thank you, how to say where's the bathroom, how to say directions, things like that can come in handy when you're in a country and people might not be speaking English. I mean a lot of times they do but I think you just shouldn't assume that. You should definitely learn how to ask basic questions or even just say the greeting, say do you speak English, and then start speaking in English I feel like is a better way to go. The next thing I wanted to bring up is just budgeting which is really hard and I feel like it's something that also isn't necessarily talked about a lot. At least where I'm from, again, it looks very glamorous and people study abroad, you just travel somewhere every single weekend, you go to these incredible like beach locations or you know huge cities and it's all lots of travel and very expensive and you know budgeting is actually really really tough and it's definitely something that is on your mind at all times when you're booking things to try to keep things cheap and you know you don't have to travel every weekend if it's not in your budget and definitely just things like that where like don't feel the pressure to spend your entire life savings because it can happen easily. The next thing that I feel like nobody tells you is that you will get annoyed with your friends while traveling and I feel like this will definitely happen either on longer trips or if you always travel with the same people. I feel like it's just inevitable that you're kind of in stressful situations sometimes, sometimes things don't go as planned and like you're going to get annoyed with your friends and you want to have the best time with your friends obviously but like it's okay if sometimes you guys are like getting in a fight or something, like I feel like that's totally normal and you just have to obviously handle it like an adult and because you're going to be in a foreign country you have to really, you know, be an adult in that situation and kind of just make up and move on and accept who your friends are for who they are. And the last thing that I wanted to bring up is that it is okay if like partying and drinking isn't your thing. This is another thing I've brought up on my channel before where I'm not a huge partier, I'll get drinks with dinner you know like obviously when I'm in Europe because I'm 20 so I'm not legal in America but I would get drinks at dinner in Europe and stuff but I personally don't like going to clubs. I find them very stressful and you know they make me very anxious so I rather just not go to a club. I enjoy, you know, I prefer to like go to like a bar or pub or whatever and it's okay if partying and drinking isn't your thing. There's a huge expectation when you go abroad because you're legal there to party every single day and go out all times of the week but it's okay if you're not like that and you're definitely going to find people that also aren't, you know, so inclined to party as much and you guys can bond over that and form friendships and it's totally normal and if you feel like you're worried about the party scene abroad like you don't have to partake if you don't want to. So that was just a quick list of things that maybe I wasn't expecting or prepared for or things that I learned while I was abroad that hopefully help you guys who have been asking me lots of questions. I'm planning on making one other study abroad video, I might film it right after this, about how to travel on a student budget and kind of like break down how I book hostels, how I book flights, everything like that. Because that's probably what I got the most questions on and I know I touched upon it in my last study abroad video but people asked to make a separate video on it. So I think I'm going to do that and hopefully you guys find all of these sorts of videos helpful. If you did, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe and I'll see you in the next one. Thanks for watching. Bye.