I was wracking my brain this week trying to find a lighter topic to write about. Maybe something that wasn’t so statistics or technical jargon heavy. I’ll leave that for next week. Yet despite my adamant denial of being a die-hard cynic, I was having a lot of trouble. Blame it on the bleary skies denying me my rightful vitamin D or my inadvertent house arrest (see broken foot), either way I was coming up dry. Then I was inspired by some of my old college photos – point your fingers at Facebook for constantly plaguing me with updates.

After ragging on the college system last week, I want to make sure to highlight some of the good. Specifically, I want to talk about study abroad. Now I said no statistics so I’ll suppress my urge to drop one here. I’ll shoot from the hip, as it were.

Study abroad is a college program that gives students the opportunity to study in foreign countries. Students can either study for a year, a semester, a quarter – all the details are dependant upon the college. Most colleges have a pre-determined list of the programs compatible with their administration and education philosophy for their students to choose from. However if you don’t see what you’re looking for, at least my school could be convinced. That just means a lot more paperwork to go through.

I studied abroad in Beijing, China the fall semester of my junior year. Doing so was one of the best decisions of my college career, and it has definitely inspired some of my favorite memories. By the way, climbing a sand dune is pretty much the same as climbing a mountain. I swear it didn’t look that tall when I started. Surprise! I recommend water and making your friends light a bonfire so you know which side of the slope to roll down. Also, if you get a call from a drunken, atheist friend in the middle of the night claiming he’s found God, you’re looking for a brightly lit cliff formation behind a McDonald’s. Yup, believe it or not McDonald’s is considered a family treat in China since its prices are stiffer than local fare.

As far as I’m concerned, anyone who doesn’t study abroad while at college is missing out. Students are often concerned that there isn’t enough room in their schedule since a lot of specialized curriculum is strictly sequential. Most universities demand that you take those specific courses at that university. Transfer credits are a no. My classes were that way, but I knew that I wanted to study abroad by my sophomore year. Planning ahead allowed me to play Tetris with my graduation requirements. See, you can transfer the classes you take while abroad. The catch is just what they transfer as. The earlier you figure that out, the more efficiently you can arrange your classes.

The other major argument against study abroad is from ‘the adults’ who claim the programs are nothing more than several-month-long parties. Are they wrong? Well… Let me put it this way, partiers are going to party and bookworms are going to study regardless of the country they’re in. I did let loose a bit during my first trip abroad, but I also kept my grades up and explored the cities during the day. Honestly, if I had to do it all over again I’d have let my hair down a little more often. You form a very tight bond with your fellow study abroad constituents, even more so in the countries where English is a luxury. As long as you’re keeping your head, why hesitate to enjoy that?

I definitely suffered homesickness and a disturbing nostalgia for bad fountain soda, but that is all part of the process. Please, students who are thinking of studying abroad, make sure to wedge your entitled American head out of your rear before boarding that plane. If you don’t think that foreigners can spot the average American college student (and adjust their prices accordingly) a mile away, you’re kidding yourself. Acting the part only exacerbates the problem and perpetuates the stereotype.

Anecdotes and rare cultural gifts such as being allowed into a Buddhist temple not open to the public or discovering hidden traditional art studios down back alleyways in the middle of an otherwise tourist-ridden district aside. Studying abroad means living in an entirely different country. Not just visiting or being a tourist. It opened my eyes as to my world and myself. And I learned that, in this modern world, ‘foreign’ isn’t actually that far away.