Monday, September 6, 2010

Lessons Learned from Traveling Abroad

The semester hasn’t started yet, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t started learning. These first two weeks of traveling have been wonderful, but not without their share of ups and downs, as traveling always is. So here I have complied a list of little life lessons that have really been driven home for me in my time abroad so far:

  1. Be open. I tried pigeon at dinner last night. Granted, I hated it, but I tried it. And now I never have to have pigeon again.

  2. Maintain your habits. For me, things like having a routine before I go to bed, praying, and doing my journaling for the Artist’s Way helped keep me centered even while we were on the road.

  3. Be thrifty, but also realize what is worth spending money on. Some of the tours we took in London and Paris were between 20-30 euro, but they were fast, easy, and stress-free, which becomes increasingly important the more time you spend abroad. I know that I would have regretted not going on them much more than I regret paying the 30 euro in the first place.

  4. Being early to a train station/airport/event never hurt anyone. We were two and half hours early for our plane out of Kansas City, so we got bumped up to an earlier flight, making what could have been a very tight connection in Houston totally manageable. In Paris we got to the train station 3 hours early for our trip to Lourdes and that time was perfect for us to decompress and prepare ourselves to be in a new place.

  5. Slow down when you need to. We didn’t do much in Montpelier, but it was well worth it to us both to slow down, eat a baguette, catch up on some blogging, and watch “The Ladykillers” in English. Traveling in a foreign country can be overwhelming and a bit scary at times, and it’s okay to take some much-needed refuge in some familiar comforts.

  6. Teamwork should not be underestimated. There were many times that I could not have dealt with a situation without John. We each have very different strengths and we were able to put them together and face the obstacles in our way.

  7. Take an obnoxious amount of photos. When you’re taking the trip of a lifetime, you want to remember it. But also be sure to spend some time looking out without a camera lens—you want to remember these things yourself too!

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