Top 10 Tips: University Exchange

Top 10 ways to prepare

for a university exchange:

1. Save money until the bank can’t possibility hold any more money. You’re going to need it. Fun is pretty expensive. So are food, rent, transport, and most importantly, alcohol.
2. Learn the lingo and laws pronto. Is walking around with a beer in your chosen country illegal? Well, figure it out before the police inform and arrest you!
3. Take an Australian power board with you. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to charge your laptop, straighten your hair and use an electric shaver at the same time.
4. Take various forms of identification with you. If, for some reason, you (drunkenly) lose your handbag with your drivers licence, you’ll be stuck having to take your passport out with you to every nightclub and having to be sober sally to ensure you don’t lose it!
5. Be gentle with your parents when they suggest you Skype EVERY day of your exchange. It’ll start out that way. However, by the end, everyone will get fed up of time differences and it’ll be you begging them to talk to you because you’re home sick!
6. Keep in contact with your friends back home. While you are having the best time with your new friends, you don’t want to come home and be no friends Nigel because they have all forgotten about you!
7. Book as much as possible before you leave- it will be cheaper. There’s no such thing as last minute discounts for airplanes! Leave room for flexibility with new friends, because unless you’re an unsociable peanut, you’ll make loads of friends that you’ll want to travel with.
8. Print some photos of your family and friends before you leave, for your bedroom. They’ll be such a comfort in a plain room!
9. Buy travel money cards and use them overseas. A fabulous, safe, convenient way to access your money. (I wasn’t paid by a bank to say this!)
10. Expect to be a changed person when you return. Your life, you friends, your family and your attitude will be different. Seize the invaluable experience to change anything you want to change for the good.