What I Didn't Know Before Leaving

Before I left to go to Denmark for my first ever study abroad experience, I was all excited and giddy. I did so much research on study abroad and what I needed to do beforehand, about all of the fun I would have.

What I did not know, however, is that this experience could just be average, just another thing on my CV. And that's exactly what it turned out to be. Average.

At the beginning of the semester, everything was great and we were all so excited to be there and so excited to be friends and do things together, but those feelings slowly dissipated.

It could have been the cold; it was Denmark in February after all. It could also simply have been our laziness, but we just didn't make enough of an effort to get close and explore together. And on top of that, our personalities didn't really match. We weren't the best types of people for each other. That isn't something anyone can control. It just happens.

So that's how the whole "you'll make life-long friends" thing didn't happen for me.

Another thing that one expects while on study abroad is that you travel a lot. That also didn't happen for me. As someone who comes from a Middle Eastern country, Europe isn't very easy for me to access and I really wanted to travel, but the lack of a proper travel buddy, as well as the lack of expenses, really held me, and many of my friends, back. Traveling in Europe is not as cheap or as easy as one would think.

When you think about traveling through Europe, you expect 10 euro train rides and dirt-cheap accommodation. And that was the case, sometimes. More often than not, however, trains to the places we wanted to to to were just too expensive, and accommodation was only cheap when booked at least a month in advance. There go any spontaneous trips.

The last thing that I want to touch on is the fact that I missed home so much. And this is something I never expected. I think this is something that many people overlook when leaving home, especially for the first time. But it gets difficult sometimes, especially when you get sick or need help with things that only family and close friends can help with.

Now, this all isn't to say that I didn't have a good time and that some of the experiences I gained are things I would never have come close to gaining had I not gone. But it was just as I said. Average.