2017 Stories from Abroad

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

If you are anything like me (poor university student), budgeting is your best friend. This becomes especially important when travelling. The more places you want to see, the more things you want to experience, the better you have to be about keeping track of your money. Luckily, I picked up a few tips about travelling on a budget, even in a more expensive country like Spain.

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

You might be abroad right now feeling like you have just made the biggest mistake of your life. Why did you ever think exchange was a good idea? You clearly did not understand how hard this experience was going to be.

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

When I used to think about all the places I would see while I was abroad, my mind automatically jumped to the famous and historic places. I thought about Paris, Rome and London, envisioning coffee at the Eiffel tower or lunch near Big Ben. What I quickly discovered surprised me and completely made my change my thinking about travelling.

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

As some of you may know, not many things actually go as smoothly as they were planned. As you start to become an expert traveller, you learn to expect some bumps along the road. Things become more relaxed because, hey, it all works out in the end right?

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship and a member of the BC Study Abroad Writer in Residence Team.

Okay, so I don’t know how many of you guys packed your own lunches growing up, but my mother made sure I was self-sufficient. We would go to the grocery store every week and my older sister and I were allowed to each pick a few items to include in our lunches for the school week to come.

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

By Janna Wale, Thompson Rivers University, winner of the 2017 Stories from Abroad Scholarship.

It’s another quiet evening in the house that has become my home over the months of my exchange in Inverness, Scotland. My host mother is probably downstairs obsessively cleaning something or spoiling her ‘wee dog’ Millie, while my host father watches the documentary channel while taking trips to the kitchen for chocolate. Even though I am so far away from my family, studying abroad has taught me that ‘home’ is more than the house you are living in.