1. Biking around the city – I personally am not a huge fan of biking, but even I can see what the hype is about when it comes to Amsterdam and its biking culture. In a city that has more bikes than it has people, it is a must to experience this at least once or twice, if not more. You feel a different kind of joy when you’re moving along the streets of Amsterdam on wheels and you are surrounded by hundreds of others on their own.

Studying abroad is definitely a life-changing experience and has opened my eyes to several aspects of life in France compared to back home. It hasn’t been easy of course with lows and highs. Before I leave a couple of days from now, I would like to take a moment to share with you all some of my favorite moments or aspects of life here that I’ll miss. This isn’t an exhaustive list nor in a particular order, but it’s just to give you an idea of some of my favorite moments abroad.

My time in Paris is coming to an end, so here are some packing tips for things to bring from home and things to buy here that I’ve discovered since arriving to Paris!

Tote Bag

As I wrap up my semester in London, I have the same exact bittersweet feeling that I had at the beginning of the program. On one note, I feel that I have grown tremendously in terms of who I am and how I want to progress in my life moving forward. On another note, I will miss my friends here and the connections I’ve made.

As we wind down to the end of the semester with finals around the corner, I have this strong urge to buy mountains of presents for my family and friends. Especially with the many Christmas markets in Paris and thousands of potential Christmas presents to go home with. All of that sounds good until I have to start packing. This week is not only the week of finals, but I have to start packing as well. I guess we just have to do one thing at a time.

As my time in London is coming to an end, (trying not to think about it) I feel that over the past four months I have been able to adapt to life abroad pretty well. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t have my fair share of slip ups along the day. Studying abroad is such an experiential learning opportunity, so I felt it would be keen to share my advice of the “do’s and don'ts” of studying abroad. 

DO:

Make time for school. 

As my semester studying abroad in Granada, Spain comes to a close, I wanted to put together a list of my top 10 tips for studying abroad that would have been helpful to read before I embarked on this adventure. These are in no particular order. Some of these apply to studying abroad in general but some of them are specific to Spain.  

As I go into the final week of my program here in London, I am grateful to have been able to spend my time here with my new friends. I remember when I first landed in London back in September, I was so worried about making sure that I made friends. Being abroad was all new to me at first, but now I have made so many amazing friends that will continue on even after the end of my program. 

The journey of studying abroad is a big one, even exciting for most. You have all these ideas and views of how your study abroad journey is going to go. The kinds of friends you’re going to make, the food you’re going to eat, and the places that you’ll be able to explore. Those are the many things people think of when studying abroad. I was one of those people, and these things are mostly true.