If you have an opportunity to study abroad in Europe, then first of all, why are you reading this? You should be getting ready! But, if you want to make sure that you are absolutely prepared and absolutely ready for that trip across the pond, here are a few tips for young students who are traveling outside of their own home country and living on their own for the first time in Europe.
Get Copies of Your Papers
It is a good idea to have copies of your passport, Visa, identification and so on. It is not uncommon for these items to be stolen when you are traveling around Europe, so make sure that you have backups just in case. You may also want to keep multiple copies on you in various parts on your person. Rather than putting all of your stuff in a handbag, for instance, keep one set of papers in your pocket, another in your coat, another in your bag, etc. The more papers you have, the safer you will be.
Traveling Around Europe
The great thing about international studies abroad, in Europe, anyways, is that you have the entire continent open to you. You may be stationed in London, but for fairly cheap, you can get on a train to Spain or France, you can bike or hitch hike to Scotland. There are a lot of places you can go in Europe, you do not have to spend your whole time there in your dorm.
Find Cheap Activities
You would be surprised how quickly you can burn through your money if you are not careful. Make sure that you know how to have fun for free. The cool thing about Europe, though, is that loitering is something of a national pastime in places like Paris and London. Find cool hangouts and just waste some time people-watching.
There are some expenses that you will not be able to avoid. The average cost of living in Europe includes spending roughly 100 EUR a week on your living quarters, around forty a month on utilities, about fifty to sixty a week on groceries, and even with certain discounts, like London’s National Union of Students pass, you should expect to spend anywhere from sixty to 100 EUR a month on transport, depending on how much moving around you do. With other expenses, you may be spending as much as 660 to a little over a thousand Euros a month just to get by in Europe. This comes out to anywhere from nine hundred to a couple thousand dollars, USD, so finding cheap ways to have fun is a necessity.
So there are certainly some ups and downs, some pros and cons, to studying in Europe, but all in all, the end experience is, in many students opinions, more than worth the extra troubles.
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