Cal Poly English major Jonnie Reinhold was traveling on a train from Nice, France to Florence, Italy when suddenly the train stopped.
After three hours at a standstill, the check-in time came and passed for the hostel she had previously booked. At 1 a.m., Reinhold and her companion found themselves off the train and on the empty, dark streets of Florence, Italy with no place to stay the night. They were tired, afraid and weary from traveling.
“I felt scared and lost because I didn’t know where I was or where I was going. I felt like I was kind of alone because it was just me and my friend Stephanie,” Reinhold said. “No one really knew where exactly where we were, and no one was waiting for us to arrive somewhere to check on us. I also felt really vulnerable because I had all of my possessions, money, passport on me.”
Behind the glamour and prestige that accompanies the words study abroad, most students in the program experience at least one challenging situation. Some wish they had kept their money hidden better to avoid theft, others that they had budgeted their money wiser or took more language classes.
Yet most students find that surviving these experiences increases their self-confidence and they’ve found that with proper planning and a positive attitude, even the most difficult situation can be conquered.
Students around the nation are opting to take on this challenge and broaden their college experience abroad. According to the U.S. Department of Education, over 80,000 Americans study abroad at the university level each year and the number continues to increase each year.
The Institute of International Education ranks Cal Poly second out of 40 top master’s institutions in the highest number of students who studied abroad for one to two quarters during the 2007-08 school year. A total of 817 students, or 3 to 4 percent of Cal Poly students, were involved in study abroad program. Cal Poly also ranks sixth out of 40 master degree level universities in the nation for number of students who study abroad for one year.
Many study abroad students don’t realize the comfort and convenience that accompanies living in the United States until they leave it.
Reinhold backpacked in Europe before she traveled to Germany for school. While backpacking, she lived on only the bare necessities, staying in hostels and eating food from grocery stores. She traveled Europe by train, its main transportation system, and usually had better luck reaching her destinations on time than that one stranded night in Florence.
Survival tip No. 1: a good attitude and proactive thinking go along way. In Reinhold’s situation, she could have found a hotel with a little research or phone calling.
Fortunately, Reinhold and her companion were approached by a hostel worker who offered the two girls the last spot in his family-run hostel. The hostel turned out to be the nicest they stayed in during the trip, a win-win situation for all involved.
Often students who study abroad choose to do additional traveling on their own. The most economical way to do this is to backpack and stay at cheap hostels instead of paying high prices for hotel rooms.
Survival tip No. 2: pack only necessary items to avoid a heavy load. Reinhold, an experienced backpacker, ranked the top ten items she thinks will make the experience light and memorable.
She suggests using a large, durable backpack with lots of storage compartments. Inside should be multi-purpose soap to use for clothes, shampoo and body wash, comfortable shoes, an energy bar, a towel, a passport holder that can be strapped beneath clothing for safety purposes, a watch with an alarm clock, a journal, pen, scissors and glue for scrapbooking and a camera with two memory cards.
Difficult situations are most likely to occur while backpacking, riding on mass transportation or while in a large group of people according to Scott Leinweber, Cal Poly’s study abroad student advisor. He remembers a trying six-hour bus ride on a scary rural road through the Andes in South America.
“We were out in the middle of nowhere,” Leinweber said. “There were no professors on the bus and one of the tires blew out.”
The bus driver fixed the tire with a spare, and the group continued down the narrow road only to have a second tire fail. The bus driver, who only spoke Spanish, wanted to continue traveling with only five tires. The Spanish-speaking students told the bus driver that they weren’t comfortable driving on five tires and the bus finally turned around and found a replacement tire in a previous town.
Leinweber’s experience highlights survival tip No. 3: Travel with someone who has enough language skills to communicate with native speakers, or develop your own language skills.
Theft is a major problem in many countries abroad. Leinweber’s wallet was stolen the first day he arrived in Peru when it was in an inside pocket near the top of his jacket. While standing on a crammed bus, another passenger and his friend “accidentally” bumped into him. Leinweber saw the man put his wallet into his pocket and started yelling at them in Spanish, but his wallet and the pickpocket had already disappeared into the crowd.
Survival tip No. 4: Keep your money and passport under your clothes with a money belt and passport holder. Traveler’s checks are another good option as long as the country you visit accepts them. Pockets, purses and backpacks make stealing easy for thieves. If the thief can see your wallet, they can take it, Reinhold said. Also, avoid handling your money in public places because thieves can see exactly where you are placing their potential loot, advises Reinhold.
Most students who study abroad are required to take language classes during their stay. However, many students still experience culture shock from the lack of familiarity with the country. Art and design senior Lauren O’Donnell studied in Florence, Italy for one year. While there, she attended an Italian art school where classes were taught entirely in Italian. She found the language barrier challenging, but “character building” and classified it as one of the first experiences where she felt like a minority.
Survival tip No. 5: To cope with culture shock, realize that the shock originates from a lack of understanding of the other people’s cultural background and the difficulty of communicating in a foreign language, according to the Consortium for International Education and Multicultural Studies. When a student realizes that he or she can gain an understanding of the culture and language through daily interaction, the shock will begin to dissipate.
Similar to other students, O’Donnell said she faced reverse culture shock after retuning to the U.S. To handle this after returning from Wales, Jeanette Lydon recommends befriending a person who returns to the U.S. at the same time. Lydon still calls her friend to talk about cultural adjustments.
Most programs that sponsors these trips provide students with information about how to deal with reverse culture shock when re-entering the U.S. Survival tip number No. 6: Read this advice.
Here’s a sample from the University of Buffalo:
“The real key to re-entering your home culture is to realize that there may be frustrations with readjusting to life in the U.S. and that the frustrations are a normal part of the total learning process, and an on-going part of your cross-cultural experience.”
A great campus resource for everything study abroad related is the International Education Programs Office located in building 38, room 108. The International Education Program Director, John Battenburg said the study abroad experience is “the best time of students’ lives.” He encourages students to travel in order to experience both “personal transformation and professional opportunities.”
Battenburg identifies the common reasons why students don’t study abroad to include: cost, insufficient language skills, and a misconception that the program will lengthen their time in college. He finds that financial aid covers most expenses, some countries speak English, and with proper planning no extra time will be spent in college.
Survival tip No. 7: relish the experience! Despite the challenging situations Reinhold encountered, she accomplished her goal to “see through the eyes of a resident.” She surpassed the tourist experience and found the residential experience “ten times more fulfilling.”