What Life Abroad Has Taught Me

1. Languages don't soak into your brain automatically just because you're in a country where the language is spoken.

2.   Americans come across as really friendly people--especially abroad.

3.  That said,  there are friendly people to be found everywhere.

4.  People will make broad stereotype-like-statements about you/your nationality and then cover themselves by saying that you are 'the exception' or 'different'.


5.  No matter how different it may seem in the beginning, you can get used to anything.

6.  You'll meet people and make friends with people from your own country that you probably would never have spoken to or interacted with back at home.

7. People who try living in and making a home out of a country that isn't one's own, in a language that isn't one's mother tongue, deserve a lot more respect.

8.  It is totally possible to forget how to speak your mother tongue properly.

...and last but not least...

9.   Humility and a sense of humor are good qualities to have abroad.  Timidness, not so much.

“Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun every year.” ~ Unknown