Wow, less than two months until departure and I can’t believe we’re here! The last few months have been spent on getting the visa, which was a journey, to say the least. After months of waiting for approvals, taking passport photos, making appointments, and booking flights, it’s finally here! I was able to go home for fall break and made an appointment at the Chicago office so I could go before I flew back to Portland. 10/10 reviews for VFS Chicago, the consulate employee was super friendly and managed to ease my obvious tensions and shaky hands.

I’ve been in France for just about a week, and I already have so many thoughts to share! But for my first post, I wanted to flash back to about 2 months before leaving for this journey. After all, I wouldn’t be here without hours of preparation.

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WOW.

Throughout my entire preparation for studying abroad, I have found a common theme in everyone’s advice, which is, no matter how hard you try, you will never be fully prepared. Many people claim this with notes of optimism; however, in true type fashion, my brain found this advice unacceptable. At first, I tried so hard to make this claim false and go into my study abroad experience being truly prepared. Now, a few months into this process I can confidently say, they were right.

When I was little, I used to love airports because it meant vacation. Now I’m 19 and having a mental breakdown in one because I just want to go home.

I have been anticipating studying abroad for so long, and now that it is finally here, it feels surreal. One of the first challenges I am currently facing is mentally preparing as well as packing. At first, I felt extremely overwhelmed, but I have since gotten the hang of things and found resources that have helped me the most. I hope this blog post can help other IES Abroad students that are about to embark on their journeys!