Traveling abroad, whether for a few weeks or an entire semester, is an enriching experience filled with valuable lessons that can only be discovered in a foreign environment, with foreign people, doing foreign things. Whether it be indulging in the unknown cuisine of a country, conversing with locals about their unfamiliar experiences, or navigating unclear transit amongst a landscape entirely unknown, lessons both big and small are constantly occurring despite how conscious we are of it.
Oftentimes, students retrospectively assess their experiences and highlight the primary takeaways. Nearly all of these students will tell you to enjoy every single day, do things that are true to the objectives you aim to accomplish, and be grateful for the opportunities you encounter. However, these are the big things. The big lessons that surface after a big period of time has surpassed and big, eye-opening events have happened.
But, amidst my seemingly unending transit, and after settling into my new temporary home, and with passerby shuffling robotically beside me, and the white noise of foreign accents buzzing inaudibly all around me, I realized all that just 24 hours had introduced to me.
1. Rest is important, but never sleep through the take-off or landing on a plane.
Pay attention to the first thoughts that surface when lifting up from familiar territory and the final conclusions that emerge upon the realization that you’re as alone as a small fish in a big pond. They speak volumes on behalf of what you should keep in mind during your time abroad. They’re the most raw, vulnerable moments every weary traveler experiences when beginning a new journey.
2. Having a meal alone in a place you are unfamiliar with is an incredibly exposing, and important, experience to have.
Defenseless and without friends to shield the social expectation of having company for a meal, people find it difficult to have a meal alone is an obstacle. We’ve been conditioned to only go to restaurants, sit in coffee shops, and engage in public utilities when friends or family are present. Half the enjoyment of going out to dinner is often embedded in engaging with another person or other people. However, going out to eat alone means observing the people surrounding you. It means really tasting the food that you’re ordering and not just dulling it with passive conversation. When you go out to dinner alone, it means that you can’t help but watch the people who go to that restaurant everyday, and hopefully learn a little about who they are and where they come from.
3. Try to navigate a new landscape without Siri or Google Maps before you beckon to the convenience of technology.
Having the ability to tackle new routes and directions at the command of our fingertips is a beautiful thing. It makes driving a lot easier, and allows us to explore new places quite easily. But what’s the fun in only making it to one location with no cognitive recognition of the route necessary to get there? Getting lost means finding new places, maybe ones that you wouldn’t have thought to enter as the Point B on Google Maps.
4. Walk with your head up.
You can only learn so much about a new country, its people, and its culture by observing how they pave their sidewalks and what color peoples’ shoelaces are. So many people, no matter where you are, chronically walk through everyday with their heads down. They miss little things, like the escaped balloons wandering alone far off in the sky, or a street performer who was looking for volunteers. They miss out on opportunities because their heads are down and no one reminded them that eventually their neck will cramp.
5. Sleep in appropriately healthy doses, but you shouldn’t sacrifice even a single opportunity that could teach you something, introduce you to a new person, or influence your perspective (both literally and proverbially) for an extra minute tucked under the sheets.
Not to dismiss the importance of sleep, but there’s a fine line between getting enough and getting too much. What’s different about the bedroom you sleep in when you’re at home and the bed you sleep in now? Different sheets, maybe. Different size, probably. Different lessons? Doubtful. Bed is bed. No matter how vital it is, don’t exchange it for the day waiting outside your bedroom door.
It only took one day for all of these realizations, lessons, and observations to unravel. It starts with 24 hours, and ends with a lifetime.
