Eight tips for the untraveled traveler

The time has come and gone for returning study abroad students to phase out the super awesome my-study-abroad-was-better-than-your-study-abroad stories that governed every bit of conversation for the first few months of the year and replace them with boring, normal Richmond talk. Somehow, returning students are able to work their study abroad days into any conversation, no matter the topic. Don't get me wrong, I did it, and if you haven't, you will too.

Study abroad is an incredible experience and I wholeheartedly assert that everyone should do it at some point in their Richmond career. But everyone says this, and everyone knows this, and after a few weeks of talking about nothing but this, it gets a little irritating.

Fortunately, this period has passed and study abroad stories will now reveal themselves only at the most pertinent and appropriate moments. That is, until the spring study abroad students return in the fall. But we have plenty of time until then.

So, after just outlining how irritating lingering study abroad stories can be, I have compiled a list of things I learned in my time abroad. Oxymoronic? Maybe. But the next batch of fall study abroad students are finalizing their preparations right now, so it is hoped this can be considered one of those pertinent and appropriate moments.

When I went abroad last fall, I was one of the most untraveled people in possibly the entire school. I had never used public transportation. I didn't even know how. I had never been out of the country, unless you count the Bahamas for Spring Break, which I don't. I had never been on a plane for more than two hours.

While all of these things terrified me to no end in the days before I left, they ended up being exponentially less scary in practice. So, for any students who may be in this position, fear not. If I could do it, you most certainly can. And if my simply stating that you can do it doesn't ease your worry--which it probably doesn't--then, here are a few of the things I learned while abroad: eight things the untraveled traveler should know before going abroad.

1. Public transportation is not scary; it's kind of the greatest thing ever. The metro, the train and my personal favorite, the bus, were so incredibly easy to navigate and so convenient when you were going to class, or had had a few drinks. I find myself wishing I could trade in my car for a metro pass to get me back and forth between my apartment, campus and downtown. If only.

2. You have to pay for print credits pretty much everywhere else in the world. Maybe everyone else knew this, but I was oblivious. It took me weeks before I figured out how to print things at my abroad university, and by that time I had just bought a cheap printer. Splitting one between my roommates was a worthwhile expense, in my opinion.

3. Listen to your abroad adviser when they tell you that the pace is different wherever you are going. I was told multiple times before I left that they do things more slowly in Spain; go to the international office instead of emailing. They don't have the same organizational systems and yet I was still shocked and irritated when they didn't do things exactly the same way as they do here. Be patient and take everything with a grain of salt.

4. Always ask for the check after dinner. It's absolutely acceptable to sit at a restaurant for hours on end because your waiter will do nothing to hurry you on your way. If you're like me and you've waited tables before, it's probably ingrained in your being that the check should come right after the last dishes are cleared and dessert has been turned down, but it won't. Ask for it, or it won't come.

5. Traveling longer distances is not as easy as you might have thought. I expected to be able to hop on a train and go anywhere in Europe within two hours at a fraction of the cost of flying. I realize now that that was horribly naive. Flying was generally the quickest, and usually cheapest, method of transportation. When you only have three days to travel, you don't want to spend eight to 10 hours on a train both ways. Plan in advance and you can get cheap plane tickets to almost anywhere.

6. You will smell like an ashtray when you leave a club or bar. Smoking laws are not the same, though they are heading that way. Smoking is allowed almost everywhere, and everyone smokes. Throw your clothes in the wash when you get home and shampoo twice to get rid of the smell. Also be wary of dancing smokers; they like to sway with their cigarettes, and I have the burn marks to prove it.

7. Wear thick-soled shoes when you go out. I never really understood why all the clubs here use plastic cups (it seems so wasteful) but after picking glass out of the bottoms of my shoes each time I came home, I get it. Glass + drinking + dancing = dangerous.

8. Watch where you walk. Besides the fact that it's not necessary to pick up after your dog, at least in Spain, all sorts of unmentionable things can accumulate on the sidewalk. Pay special attention when walking past butcher shops and fish markets.