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A short introduction; my name is Libby and I am entering my third year studying French and German. I am about to embark on my year abroad with my first semester being spent in Brussels, Belgium and the second semester in Vienna, Austria.

The initial stages of applying, researching and preparing for this year abroad were admittedly quite stressful and confusing. Attending the year abroad meetings and online events and making sure not to miss any information or details was the first challenge. However, after finding out where I would be studying, I was faced with a lot more than I was previously aware of.

As I am studying a joint language degree, I often get the same email twice or have to attend a meeting for very similar (although not always exactly the same) information regarding how the exchange works. This wasn’t a problem in my opinion as it made sure that I knew exactly what to expect and what I needed to prepare for early on. However, as a consequence, emails would sometimes get lost in the inbox and be a pain to find. To make life easier, I started to pin or flag the important emails regarding year abroad activities. This is definitely something I would recommend doing!

This summer (pre-departure) was chaotic to say the least. It was spent working a full-time job and trying to find balance between personal activities and arranging and organising all that was needed for the year abroad, such as renewing passports, applying for accommodation, travel insurance, getting a GHIC card, buying a new suitcase and other essentials for my move abroad. It has been busy! I wish I had started organising some of these a lot earlier to save on the stress. I spent a lot of my evenings watching videos online of the places I would be living in – what cultural shocks might I encounter? Where are the best places to go study? Where can I go when I’m not studying? So many questions were popping into my head and I wanted to know all of the answers to prepare myself ahead of time.

I can’t lie, over the summer I felt quite stressed and anxious about it all. A lot of guidance and support was provided by the university but nothing quite made me feel relaxed. However, I had made a few decisions at the end of my second year which came in very handy. Firstly, I contacted the people who I knew would be going abroad with me to the same places and spoke with them. Secondly, I made contact with others who were on their year abroad at the time or who had previously done a year abroad in the same cities I would be studying in. The best way to make contact with these other students it through contacting your exchange co-ordinator and asking if you can be put in touch. I found this extremely helpful as I had so many questions ranging from travel to studying. Having a lot of my questions answered by those who had experienced life abroad put my mind at ease. This is something I would definitely recommend to other exchange students.

If I was to give some useful tips for those looking to embark on a year abroad, this is what i would say:

1. Do your research! I wish i had known more before narrowing my choices down in the initial stages as this would have saved me so much time later as well.

2. Make sure to find the deadlines for applying to university accommodations and any information regarding semester dates etc as far ahead as you can! I wish I had known the deadlines for applying to the university accommodations as this would have made things a lot easier (although there is nothing wrong with the one i ended up renting!), it also would have made it easier to organise things quickly and without as much hassle. Be prepared for the chains of emails between various different contacts.

3. Contact other students! Don’t be afraid to ask questions, having the answers that you need will help to make your experience a lot more stress-free.

With a week to go, I am super excited to begin the year abroad! In a weeks’ time I’ll be sitting in the Grande Place in Brussels, sipping on some beer and munching on some frites!