Connection Across Continents

Studying abroad is an intense, incredible time that is easy to find yourself floating in; fluctuating between homesickness, wanting to keep going through the new, new, new, and feeling comfortable, even stagnant. In the midst of this all, while you're busy finding yourself—your passions and new favorite memories—one thing often recurs: how to find, keep, and build connections.

I came to Vienna with a very lucky setup—three of my closest friends from my home College would be studying in Vienna alongside me! My amazing roommate is even my roommate here! Of course, I could not take everyone with me, and I found myself often thinking about my friends and family back home with little idea how to best keep up with them, especially across our differing time-zones. Here, I will explore what I did, what I didn't do, and how I recommend balancing time to be freely yourself while abroad with keeping up with those you are close with (even from such a distance).

Time for Yourself

Almost everything you will first experience while abroad will be new and unfamiliar. Undoubtedly, there will be times where you will be overwhelmed, even exhausted. In these early stages, it is vital to balance and adjust. When you take time to yourself, to get to know and sit with yourself, it becomes much easier to get to know your new city.

How to Ground Yourself

1. Have a set of habits, routines, and recurring activities or events. While abroad, it's incredibly easy to let things get away from you. One of the first things I did was set up a new morning routine (with familiar aspects from previous morning routines) to have a sense of day-by-day stability.
2. Start something new. Keep it up. I found myself loving a new habit - to sketch some new locations and soundscape what I hear there, and how I relate to my surroundings.
3. Surrounding yourself with friends is great, but make sure to have time to breathe and room to yourself. You'll lose yourself in your new city if you don't take the time to breathe! Buy yourself a sweet treat you've been meaning to try, take a quiet walk on a warm day, watch your favorite movie in your favorite sweater. Whatever it takes for you to remind yourself who you are is vital as you experience all these new changes!

When I started to feel more adjusted and comfortable in Vienna, I felt like I knew myself enough to start being more adventurous. Most notably, I took my first ever solo trip. I first traveled to Brno, Czechia to retrace the footsteps of the composer I've been studying back home for the past two years. During that weekend, two of my dear friends joined me for the first day before leaving me to my own devices. I took a day trip the day after to Prague, and while planning all on my own felt at times overwhelming, I felt truly and incredibly immersed in my trip and experiences. I absolutely loved wandering the cities with a minimal agenda and taking in everything as I saw and felt it. Here's my advice for solo tripping!

How to Crush a Solo Trip

1. Keep a loose, brief list of goals. I love spontaneity, but having a list of loose goals for each new city really helped me feel as though I wasn't wandering aimlessly (though, always make some time for aimless wandering)!
2. Keep yourself safe. Above all else, it is vital to stay aware and alert. This doesn't mean being on-edge for your whole trip; just being more mindful. I never told anyone I was traveling alone (when asked, I said I would be meeting with my parents later), where I was staying, where I was from, etc. Shifting a conversation can be an easy way to protect yourself. I also kept important things in my pockets, which my shirt covered, and I often walked with at least one hand in my pockets to be sure I could feel everything.
3. Don't be lost in your phone! I love Google Maps as much as the next guy, but this is the easiest way to draw yourself out of immersion in your trip. Keeping your head in your phone while you're walking also puts you in danger, especially somewhere completely new. There were a couple times in my travels where I found myself in danger of completely losing battery, and thus becoming completely lost. Stay aware, stay immersed, and stay in the moment!

Time for Something Familiar

One of the hardest things to do while abroad can be keeping up with those back home. Regrettably, I didn't call my family all that much unless they prompted it. I felt that I wanted more time to manage myself in my new city than to keep everyone back home constantly updated on what I was experiencing for myself. I'm never really one for calling much anyways, but I wanted to keep my family in the know. Instead of calling often, my alternative was to set up a PhotoCircle! PhotoCircle is a great app that allows you to set up a shared photo album for anyone you'd like to share with. I uploaded dozens of pictures of my time abroad at a time, and they got to see everything I documented from continents away (it was also a great way to share photos with the friends I was with)!

Aside from calling and photo sharing, by far the most unique and interesting way I decided to keep up with my loved ones back home was through... a weekly newsletter. At first, as a joke, I put forth the idea of writing a weekly newsletter with two of my friends studying in Vienna with me so that our other friends could know what's been going on with us. When the first week flew by, however, I knew I wanted some way to document and remember our weeks here. Enter, Der Wöchentliche Wiener (The Weekly Wiener).

The Weekly Wiener has been a fun, comedic, and introspective way for me and my friends in Vienna to reflect on our time here while keeping our friends updated. Each issue starts with an overview of the week before going to our individual columns. I always try to include a guest column as well, as a way to make connections between my new friends in Vienna and my dear friends back home! It's a lighthearted souvenir of sorts, and, most importantly, we don't take it too seriously!

All in all, staying connected while abroad is a give-and-take. While it's important to keep in touch and keep updates coming, sometimes, you will just need some time to yourself; to experience, live, see, feel, and understand everything new and beautiful before you. Staying in touch takes many forms, and, most importantly, you can't stay in touch if you're not taking the time to stay in touch with yourself, too.