{"id":1558,"date":"2014-10-06T10:22:56","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T14:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/?p=1558"},"modified":"2014-10-06T10:27:37","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T14:27:37","slug":"anneliese-make-the-most-of-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2014\/10\/06\/anneliese-make-the-most-of-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Anneliese: Make the Most of Abroad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello from the future, my sweet Terriers! It\u2019s currently 10:08am on Saturday, October 4th<\/sup> in Auckland, New Zealand, while it\u2019s 5:08pm on Friday, October 3rd<\/sup> in Boston. Weeeird right? It\u2019s also strange to think that my school semester here ends in 3 weeks, since I started in mid-July, and you guys are only a month into yours. Talk about trippy. (If you didn\u2019t pick up on it, that was an extremely desperate pun because, you know, \u201ctrippy,\u201d like I\u2019m on a \u201ctrip\u201d since I\u2019m studying abroad. I\u2019m sorry.)<\/p>\n

Anywho, I\u2019m not going to write an entire blog entry trying to convince you to study abroad by telling you how beautiful and wonderful the experience is. I\u2019m sure most of you don\u2019t need convincing and I think everyone understands how awesome it is to get to live in any country of your choice for 4 months. However, I do want to share with you the ways in which you can make the most of your time abroad and how you might deal with some unexpected challenges.<\/p>\n

Pick where you <\/i>want to go and avoid tagging along with friends.<\/b><\/p>\n

This was the toughest one for me. I\u2019ve been obsessed with New Zealand since my senior year of high school\u2014take one look around my apartment and you\u2019ll pick up on the Kiwi paraphernalia lying around. But most of my closest friends are film majors and will be spending their spring semester in LA. Since this is my senior year, it was hard for me to decide to essentially spend my entire senior year without them. I was so close to ditching New Zealand and going to LA in the spring for that reason, even though I have no desire to live and work in LA. Luckily I have the most awesome friends who told me that they would shun me if I didn\u2019t go to New Zealand, because they knew how important it was to me. Yeah, it has been insanely hard without them\u2014especially for someone as sentimental as I am. But I\u2019ve kept in touch with everyone and I know I will see them in December when I head back to Boston. I\u2019ve also made amazing friends here in Auckland, with people in the program, as well as with Kiwis I met through class and my internship.<\/p>\n

Do some research and make a list before you go.<\/b><\/p>\n

Make a list of places you\u2019d like to visit, events that may be happening, or restaurants you want to try before you arrive in your country of choice. I made a list before coming to New Zealand and though I definitely won\u2019t hit all of the spots because I\u2019m so busy with classes and my internship, it\u2019s a good thing to have on quiet weekends when my roommates and I feel like we\u2019re getting lazy. Here are some great websites for travel advice: www.matadornetwork.com<\/a> & www.lonelyplanet.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Say YES to everything.<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, say \u201cyes\u201d to everything within reason. This is something else I struggle with since I usually overthink everything and I consider myself a reserved person. But I made a promise to myself that I would say yes to every opportunity that pops up, no matter how far out of my comfort zone or scared I feel. I think I\u2019ve been doing a pretty good job of it so far: I\u2019ve jumped off a cliff into the black sand dunes; I\u2019ve driven on the \u201cwrong\u201d side of the road; I couchsurfed with strangers in Melbourne; I\u2019ve been on some really awkward\u2014and a few nice!\u2014dates with random Kiwis. I plan on backpacking in the South Island by myself and skydiving in Queenstown and maybe getting a tattoo. (Just kidding about that last one.) I realized early on that my time in Auckland is basically a reprieve from my real life in Boston. Who cares if I have embarrassing moments or I make some mistakes? None of that (within reason) will affect anything back home, so now is the time to try new things. I\u2019m proud of myself because I feel as though I\u2019m becoming more assertive and independent, and those qualities are something that will come back to Boston with me.<\/p>\n

Save up your money before you go.<\/b><\/p>\n

As I mentioned, studying abroad is kind of like a break from real life where you get to try all kinds of new things. Unfortunately, experiences can be quite costly. You should really save as much money as you can before you go so you are able to say \u201cyes\u201d to every opportunity. I lucked out a bit because the American dollar is stronger than the Kiwi dollar, so when I think I\u2019m spending $75 on a ticket to Hobbiton, I\u2019m really only spending $58. Yeah, things can be expensive in New Zealand, especially groceries\u2014$4 for a single cucumber!\u2014but after speaking to my friend who studied abroad in London, it\u2019s definitely cheaper overall than places in Europe.<\/p>\n

Meet and hang out with locals.<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s so easy to hang out with your BU group when you\u2019re abroad, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with that. My two roommates and I do almost everything together. However, we\u2019ve also made friends in classes, through our internships, and from going out and about. Kiwis are notoriously friendly and we\u2019ve been lucky that it\u2019s been so easy meeting people. My roommate and I started going to pub trivia every Thursday at The Fox, where we\u2019ve made friends with another team and have beers with them after each game. And today I\u2019m going to a picnic birthday party for a make-up artist I met on a film shoot through my internship. Our Kiwi friends have pointed out cool bars and restaurants we wouldn\u2019t have found on our own, suggested day trips for us to take, taught us the best public transit routes, and introduced us to different neighborhoods around Auckland. Having friends outside of the BU group makes me feel as though I\u2019m really living in Auckland, rather than visiting, and it\u2019s comforting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yes, I miss my family, my friends, Boston, and BU terribly. But I wouldn\u2019t trade my experience here in Auckland for anything, because I feel like I\u2019m taking the time to learn how I want to live my life and become the kind of person I want to be. And that\u2019s the true luxury of going abroad, because you don\u2019t have that kind of time in the chaos of real life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"IMG_9863\"<\/a>
Me and my couch surfing host Laura enjoying hot donuts at Melbourne’s Victoria Markets.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_2783\"<\/a>
The unreal Uretiti Beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_2672\"<\/a>
The Auckland skyline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Hello from the future, my sweet Terriers! It\u2019s currently 10:08am on Saturday, October 4th in Auckland, New Zealand, while it\u2019s 5:08pm on Friday, October 3rd in Boston. Weeeird right? It\u2019s also strange to think that my school semester here ends in 3 weeks, since I started in mid-July, and you guys are only a month … Continue reading Anneliese: Make the Most of Abroad<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44301,4534],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1558"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1564,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1558\/revisions\/1564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}