Tips For Surviving Your Year Abroad (painfully tried and tested)

Three started out on this journey, one escaped because survival is a battle and the heart wasn't in it. Many people I know escaped in the first month of being on the Year Abroad program. There are many reasons behind it. By all means, I've had my fair share of tearfully crying about wanting to go home to mommy and so on. Except, my mommy is Russian and doesn't put up with the whole charade. So I stayed and powered through and now I don't think I want to go home yet! I've thought about all my mistakes and all things that helped me along the way and I will share with you my very summarized wisdom.

Are You Really Ready?

Are you ready to let the rest of your course graduate without you? Will you miss your friends? Can they come visit? Is it the first time away from home? Are you ready to meet new people? To boast about the best adventure of your life?

If all of the answers are yes, you will have a jolly old time! It will be hard at times, but thankfully we have the glorious internet to keep us all attached at the hip. Not many people enjoy their first couple of months/weeks because everything is strange and new. Only through Facebook did it really sink in that most of my coursemates are completing their studies and moving on with their life, while I'm being left behind! Then I turned around and realised they are writing dissertations and I'm drinking cappuccinos and stuffing my face with fresh brioches before laid back lectures/classes/workshops with my new professors. As an art student I get a break from the curriculum and get to try new things guilt free, because IT'S ALL A PART OF MY INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE.

Don't Expect To Be Babysat

Harsh but true. People arrive to International Programs expecting to be catered and taken care of. You will receive a certain amount of help, but don't expect to be lead by the hand. Some universities offer accommodation, some do not. Most do not. When filling in application forms for Bologna we were asked if we will require accommodation and we assumed it would be handed to us. Paperwork, documents, studies, jobs and so on are your role. You're an adult now... So go pay your adult bills for your adult apartment and get adult drunk with your new adult friends.

First thing you need to know as an adult is how to barge into any building and demand attention and acquire assistance. Then go get wasted, lectures start late anyway.

Making Friends with the Locals

You will befriend most of your Erasmus group in the University, we all realised we were on the same boat and now we have friends all over the world and within just a few months we became best buds. This happens and it's awesome. Sometimes enthusiastic Anglophiles may approach you and befriend you in hopes of practising their English, that can work into a beautiful friendship as well!

However, people come from different cultures and can respond differently. I once heard a tourguide explain to American tourists in Rome “If someone pushes in line in front of you in a shop, it's nothing personal.” and how true that is. In my case study, many of my co-adventurers are bewildered by how rude Italians can be in costumer services and how forward the men can be in flirting. The culture is different here, people generally seem to have a higher level of self-confidence and do not repress emotions. I spent a day sulking because my landlady yelled at us for taking up the internet speed, not because she's mean, she's an amazing lady who brings us cakes when she bakes, but she had just returned from work and the kids were screaming and all she wanted was some quality time with her interwebz. Now we knew.

If the lady at the counter in a supermarket is having a bad day, you'll know that too. If someone on your course can't be bothered to speak English to you... You will know. Which inadvertently leads me to my next point...

Learn the Language

I  experienced a prolonged brain fart and somehow assumed I'd download and install Italian into my brain for free upon arrival to Italy. I had some Intermediate classes and thought I was good to go throughout the Summer prior to arriving in Italy.

Don't be an idiot like me. Do not assume it will be easy, it might or it might not. In the case of “not” you are basically sabotaging your own pace of progress in your new country. It's not impossible to navigate without the language, but it sure as hell doesn't work in your favour when it comes to finding cheaper stays, making friends and general day by day life. Because not only are you a student, you're a foreigner. That means some will want to take advantage of you in your panicky moments of doubt about taking this apartment (because the landlord speaks English) or looking for better priced ones.

There are plenty of free Italian courses online, same as there are of any language. The best attitude is to live and breathe the language, get yourself obsessed. Introduce yourself to basic grammar and start watching films and picking up words and phrases. You'll have a basic understanding in no time.

Research the City

Something I never wanted to do because I didn't want to get my hopes up. I wanted to know as little as possible to be as amazed as possible! I wanted my dreadful expectations to succumb to a beautiful reality that is the city in this glorious country with such an antique history!

Sweep me off my feet, Bologna, I'm yours!

...It's not an antique city, it's very industrial, it has relatively British weather for most of the year and it looks grimy compared to Rome or Venice or Florence... It's not a tourist city aimed to please the eye! It's filled with students from all over the country because the University of Bologna and the Accademia di Belle Arti is situated bang in the centre.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm saying I expected to be in Tourist wonderland and I came to a real place with real Italian students in real Northern Italy. At first I was largely disappointed, now I realise that this is the real deal. This is how the real people live! Had I read anything about it, I wouldn't have gotten upset in the first place and wasted time moping around when I could be getting active!

Get ProActive!

It seems like the most tempting thing to do when moving somewhere new is get scared and shut yourself away for recovery. I don't know why this happened, but many of us ended up being saved by the more active attentive students who were not effected by the process of moving and demanded that we all travel and do things together and didn't take no for an answer when they were inviting large groups of people for drinks. This is how we all became more comfortable and started reaching out.

However, if such folk are nowhere to be found you can take on the role yourself. Be it by approaching those other confused and bewildered looking students in the corridor or growing a pair and taking day trips by train.

Plan those trips! Explore!

I have only recently found that there are some absolutely gorgeous little streets right under my current living area. How do I know? I decided to go to a coffee bar across town and got off route by challenging myself to taking a turn into a creepy empty street called “Bocca di Lupo”. My friend Brooke was so tired of the bad weather that she booked herself a trip to Fuerteventura for a week. Alone. She met a bunch of people there and had a wonderful time. She also frequently travels alone because she's from the States and doesn't know when she'll get another chance of doing it, so she doesn't wait for volunteers. Most American students travel alone and frequently use www.couchsurfing.com for adventure accommodation.

I frequently visit historical sites in south of Italy thanks to my great-aunt and I will be doing a cross-country backpacking trip with a close friend from my home University.

Your study program offers a wide arrangement of organised events that you NEED to attend to get out there and start living!

Basically...

Be a hero of your own legend, reward your every step no matter how small it may seem, it's difficult. No doubt about it. But in the end you'll live no matter what, it's rewarding to say you did what not many others dared try!