Making the Most of Your Experience
- Take advantage of all your program has to offer (conversation partners, volunteer opportunities, internships, part-time work.) These can be priceless networking opportunities, so be sure to keep contact information for people or organizations you may want to contact later.
- Take advantage of all that your location has to offer (museums, historical sites, performing arts, sports, clubs, community organizations.) Make the most of the time you have to absorb as much as you can of the host culture.
- Try not to spend all your time with other American students, and don't spend too much time phoning or emailing home. Develop as many social relationships as possible with people from the host culture, ideally ones who speak little or no English.
- Take care of your physical and emotional health. Make sure you get enough sleep, eat healthy, and stay on schedule with any medications you take regularly. Learning a new culture is hard work, and you will feel overwhelmed at times; when that happens, you need to take time out to rest and reconnect with something familiar.
- Write regularly in a journal, a blog or letters to friends and family. Use these forms of expression to reflect on your experience and process what you are learning about your host culture and yourself.
- Above all, keep your sense of humor and learn to roll with the punches. Things will not always go as planned, and you will make cultural faux pas and language mistakes. It's all part of the learning process.
