Blog #1: Preparing for travel 

This was my first time in Europe.  I have travelled outside of the United States before but never for such an extended period of time.  There are some things you should know before leaving for your study abroad experience.  The first thing is that, if you plan on doing some shopping and want to explore the fashion of wherever you are going, pack lightly.  Because I studied in Milan, Italy, the fashion capital of the world, I knew I wanted to do a lot of shopping! I packed lightly and brought a lot of basic clothing that I could easily add accessories to.  I’m not a girl that’s usually into fashion at all, but I definitely wanted to leave room for souvenirs. 

Something else you should know, especially if you have a layover in another country, is that they might only do passport check at your layover but not when you arrive in the country you are studying in.  This was confusing for me because I had a layover in Portugal and followed the crowd to a huge line.  At first I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for but then I realized we were getting our passports stamped.  You want to be sure to give yourself sufficient time to wait in a long line before your connecting flight.  I was running a little low on time and stressing out because I only had about 90 minutes between flights.

A final tip for preparing to go abroad is to make sure you bring basics such as towels, school supplies, toiletries, etc. to hold you over until you are able to find a store to buy these things at.  I didn’t bring a shower towel because I didn’t want to waste room in my luggage but that resulted in me drying myself with a swifter towel, that I found in a grocery store, for 2 weeks.  In Italy, Milan specifically, there aren’t many stores like Target or Walmart that carry everything you need for reasonable prices.  It wasn’t until a few weeks in that some friends and I travelled a Primark, about 30 minutes away, that had some affordable towels to buy.  There was a store near my apartment that sold towels but they were about 30 Euro and I was not willing to spend that kind of money for a bath towel.  Just make sure you think of the little, everyday items that you use.