Moving to a new country is exciting, an adventure, a huge learning experience and it may set you up for the rest of your life. However we promise that it will be a more hard work than you think. While it’s easy to just throw yourself into a new life, it’s important to take the necessary precautions to protect yourself mentally, emotionally, culturally, and academically.

Step 1: Your Comfort Zone

Your comfort zone is the space that you will go to when you are highly mentally stressed. It is not only a physical space. It is a state of mind, a place where you can rest and recuperate from all the pressure of living in a new environment. To make it simple, we call it the combination of the 3 Fs-- friends, food and fun.

Friends: You will find people from your own country, and maybe even your specific community or interest groups. It is important to develop relationships here early on, because people start grouping off early in the year and once they fill their social circles, it will be hard to break in. So make these friends in your own community early, but also make it clear to them and yourselves that you will be interacting with people from other communities - because this is a very large part of why you have travelled so far.

Food from Home: There is nothing more fundamental than food for all of us. For the sake of health, saving time, cultural exchanges and socializing, you will have to do a combination of eating out and cooking at home. So quickly find the sources of the ingredients that remind you of home, because you will need it. Also, get recommendations of restaurants to eat at, and test them one by one till you find that magical dish that will become your “ghar ka khanna” away from home.

Fun: Yes, you are abroad for a serious education, however fun is an important aspect of mental health. Fun can include music, film, social gatherings, sports and festivals. Look for, list out, the local movie theatres that play films from home, or venues that have musical performances, or maybe even a nightclub for Bollywood music. These are also likely to be the places that you find your life-long partner with common interests, who can be an invaluable partner in life while living abroad for long periods of time.

By ensuring your life abroad is full of the three F’s, you will adapt and thrive in your new environment.

Step 2: The Place

In Step 2, we will give you a brief on some of the basics, like dealing with the environment and food. These are elements that are physically visible,

The Light

Most of the northern hemisphere has a light range that would confuse students coming from India. For instance, in Western Europe and North America, the summers the sun can set past 10pm and rise before 4am. This is manageable and even enjoyable. The really difficult part is in the winters, when the sun can rise after 8am, and set by 4pm. This fluctuation in the range of light can even cause depression for many people, especially for people who have been born and brought up in the tropical regions of the world. The best way to fight this is to exercise and consume Vitamin D-rich food and supplements. Do not wait for the depression to hit to take action, because it can potentially have a negative impact your academic performance.

Temperature

The weather in most of the developed world varies widely, from summer to winter, through the springs and autumns. You will find that clothing will vary immensely. The best advice we can give is to buy all indoor clothes back home, because the temperature indoors is the same the world over. However buy all outdoor clothes at your destined country, because the winter jacket you bought in a Mumbai market is almost certainly going to be inadequate in a northern winter.

Food from New Cultures

Food is going to be a constantly new experience. You will find that different cultures give importance to different aspects of enjoyment. For some it will be about flavour, like in India, where the flavour range is in the spicy part of the spectrum. In other cultures, like many parts of Western Europe, it is more about texture, like breads and meats. In other cultures it is going to be about consistency, like the soups and ramens of the far east. Some cultures will never have a savoury breakfast, while in India it is very common. So keep your mind open to this new dimensions in food and your transition for such a fundamental thing is going to be much easier. Read about Adjusting to Food from Different Cultures here, on Alum-n-I.

By being prepared to experience new things such as different daylight schedules, varying temperatures and exciting and different cultures of eating, you can ensure a smooth entry into life abroad.

Step 3: The People

Last, but definitely not least, is getting to know the people of the culture you have chosen to live in. Every country has a different sense of humour, set of manners and beliefs, and way of living and to thrive during your study abroad, think about the following basics.

Language

Whether you are going to an English-speaking country, or a non-English speaking one, make sure that you know at least 10 sentences/phrases/idioms before you even land. Demonstrating this effort will help you immensely wherever you are and ensure a friendly response to your enquiries.

Culture Shock

Remember that things that are considered taboo in our cultures are often not in other cultures, and this works vice versa. This in turn will affect conversation topics, the sort of entertainment that people pick, the approach to work culture, the way people treat their holidays. Do read our detailed article on culture shock at Alum-n-i.

Racism

This is a common worry, thanks to a lot of irresponsible pop culture. It is not as wide a problem in student-scenarios, however you will find some amount of it because of a few handful of troublesome characters in every society. The best advice is to stay away from such people, as confrontation is highly likely to lead to physical violence-- either you will get hurt, or you will have trouble with the law. Read in detail about the fundamentals of law to keep in mind while studying abroad at Alum-n-I, so that you know your rights.

Soft Skills

It is safest to be a little extra polite for the first few months in a new culture, till you understand the nuances of humour, inter-gender dynamics. Joking too freely with new friends, which is a very common method of bonding with new people in India, may work with some other cultures like the Italians, but it will not work with slightly more serious cultures. This is hard to cover in such a short article, as cultures vary widely across the world. Read more about your specific context in our ‘ Cultural Deep-Dive’ series at Alum-n-I.

By acquainting yourself with these basics, using our three steps as a guide, you will ensure that your year or two studying abroad is the best time of your life.