Written by Evan Richard, (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities), CET Barcelona, Summer 2026
When you picture yourself studying abroad, you mostly think about how amazing it’s going to be. You think about all the traveling you’ll do, the new people you’ll meet, and all the experiences you’ll have. It’s easy to get caught up in all of that excitement and not really think about the less exciting parts of the experience. What I wasn’t prepared for was just how long and exhausting the travel day to get there would be.
Things just start adding up. You can’t sleep on the plane, you have stressful short layovers, you’re trying to figure out a new airport while completely exhausted, you lock yourself out of your room, blow up your plug adapter (a quick piece of advice: never try to use a hair dryer with a travel plug adapter unless you want to learn that lesson the hard way), and realize the city isn’t exactly what you expected. After a while, it feels like one thing after another is going wrong, and you start to wonder if coming all this way to study abroad was the right decision.
Trust me when I say this, it does get better! Once you meet up with your group a lot of those doubts and worries start to fade away. I have to admit that meeting my group members was something I was nervous about before arriving. I wasn’t sure what everyone would be like or if I would fit in. Luckily, those concerns disappeared pretty quickly.
Everyone was in the same position, tired from traveling, adjusting to a new country, and looking to make new friends. It didn’t take long for conversations to start flowing and for the group to feel welcoming. Looking back, meeting everyone was the turning point that made me realize I had made the right decision to come abroad because the people you are with are the ones who can make or break the experience.
We all got dinner together on our first night with the company of our program coordinators, and it was exactly what I needed after the day we had all been through. After hours of travel, stress, and uncertainty it was refreshing to sit down, relax, and get to know everyone. We were all excited to talk about what we were looking forward to most during our time abroad and the different places we hope to travel to. Later that evening we got back together and bonded even more over a glass of wine on our rooftop.
So what I’m trying to say is don’t let the first day shape your entire opinion of studying abroad. After a long day of travel and very little sleep, it’s easy to focus on everything that seems to be going wrong and lose sight of why you came in the first place. A lot of what feels overwhelming in the moment starts to fade once you get some rest and begin to settle in. Give yourself time to adjust to your new surroundings because once that happens you’re able to experience studying abroad for what it really is, rather than through the lens of exhaustion and stress.