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When going abroad for pure travel or study abroad, what is the hardest part for you, and how do you cope?
The hardest part of traveling is the fear of the unknown. The whole idea of traveling to a new country, where you most likely don’t know anyone, is frightening.My best advice: “feel the fear and do it anyways”.
I find the hardest part of travelling to be depending on the length of the trip. On short trips, the hardest part for me is managing the jetlag. On longer trips, I find the hardest part to be managing to overcome culture shock and acclimate to the given culture. For the jetlag, I try to get right into the new sleep schedule and I take melatonin. For the culture shock, I usually need a weekend in nature to be able to contemplate and center myself. I either go to the mountains or the beach alone and just let myself feel my otherness. Sometimes just acknowledging an issue is all it takes to face it head on.
Personally, I think the hardest part of traveling would be navigation. You don’t want to spend money on a trip and time planning out an itinerary only to get lost. Understanding the public transportation system in a different country and having a sense of direction when walking around the streets would help save tons of time and energy.
For me, failing is probably my biggest fear. If I were to take a study abroad opportunity, it would be to not only learn about the culture of the target country, but to also learn the language. I’d be afraid that the time spent in that country would be wasted if I didn’t come away pretty fluent in the language.
I think the hardest part of traveling is not knowing how exactly to get from A to B. Of course, you can use a map or GPS, but sometimes a new city can still be incredibly confusing even with the use of technology. The best method to avoid getting lost is to plan ahead and have as many backup sources available in case you can’t use technology.
For me, the hardest part of travelling is finding a good balance. When travelling, of course you want to do everything, but you need to balance out time to rest so you don’t burn yourself out. Also, if you’re travelling with friends, balancing plans that would make everyone happy can be really difficult. Even though things rarely go as planned, I think planning out your trips and scheduling times to do what everyone wants to do and time for rest definitely helps balance everything.
The hardest part of travel is probably the realization that there isn’t enough time and money to do everything and I have to pick and choose. Even a full semester isn’t enough time to experience everything a location has to offer, especially when balancing exploration and sightseeing with coursework. You just have to accept that there are limits, appreciate what you have had the chance to experience and recognize that the end of a trip does not necessarily mean goodbye forever. You can always come back at some point in the future for another adventure.
