International student studying Management in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

Personal challenges

I fell into the trap of self-denial and perfectionism in the process of focusing on getting good grades to an extreme extent, simply because I wanted to have all my courses accredited by my home university. The same was true for languages, I was literally obsessed with learning a certain amount of new Russian words, spending hours per day over numerous books. My day consisted of classes, assignments, language learning and skyping with my girlfriend. Even though I was reputed as a sociable and talkative person back home, in my first semester abroad I consistently missed parties or any social event for that matter. The few people abroad I was in touch with turned out to be not as good friends as I imagined first. To top it all, both my phone and tablet broke down, leaving me practically disconnected from my girlfriend, family and society in large. As I was trying to save money, I delayed the purchase of new devices, that of course, caused only further stress. My single-minded attitude (I thought it was a virtue) and the unlucky technological device choices for my first semester abroad defined my experience in the first two months, and to say the least, I felt very dissatisfied. Two months in the semester it turned out that my home university wouldn’t accredit one of my core courses, so I lost the semester - so my disappointment had reached new deeps. All that effort and self-denial for months for zero reward??

Personal takeaways

What I did in the first 2 months of my semester abroad required a great deal of discipline and no one can take away what I learnt already. However there is one grand mistake in the equation, namely that I could have done the same academic and language learning from books back home – without ever stressing about money, the accreditation process or not seeing my girlfriend and family. When I learnt that my whole semester ended up in smoke because of an administrative issue, I started seeing things in a different light. I took my previously so treasured time to reach out to make new connections and started going out 1-2 times a week. My study abroad experience had been tremendously augmented as I let in the multifaceted world through truly observing cultural differences, langauges and attending social activities abroad. An exciting life was there the whole time but for a while I couldn’t see past my papers. I should have been in the international circulation from day one, in order to find the right people to hang out with. I should have replaced my broken devices much much sooner to restore communication with my girlfriend, family and the exchange student community. I should have settled for 100% academic performance instead of the overly perfectionist 110%. I should have acted faster, when I knew what was supposed to be done. Finally I decided to prolong my stay and lived my second term abroad with a new principle in mind: focus and discipline are important in general, but experiencing cultural diversity is the true engine of international education. Don’t wait for anyone, you have to reach out and act to make things happen the way you want.

Academic challenges

I tried everything to convince my home adminstrative department and professors to allow me to take the exam back home in order to replace the „rejected foreign course”, my efforts proved to be useless. It was a total apocalypse for me at that time, losing a semester over an outdated, burocratic, not exchange student friendly academic rule. Also, since academic success was the main driving force and inspiration for me abroad, I had a hard time to accept the mistakes and working style (or non-working style) of fellow international students, so often I decided to do others’ work before they could even try. Despite spending hours each day on learning languages, I did not reach my fluency goals. Partially I blamed the local language buddy system for this, because they assigned a local student to practice with me, but then every „helper” disappeared – so I was waiting and waiting to find a language buddy.

Academic takeaways

Expressions like „belief”, „hope”, „maybe”, „yes, but…” do not belong to the vocabulary of an international student. There is no time to believe this or that, hope that something will turn out to be good, nor you have the luxury to back out from everything life throws in your way. I learnt this the hard way, that you have to anticipate and actively contribute. Think twice but then you must act. Instead of waiting for weeks for a language buddy to turn up (every week they said next week), I should have looked for someone myself. Today there are countless online groups on Facebook, Meetup and other sites specifically designed for meeting and practicing languages. I was just too busy to go the extra mile in the RIGHT direction. Speaking with natives is worth double learning and the inherent potential of making a new friend. Instead of hoping and stressing about the accreditation, I should have had a plan B in mind and go with whichever happens. So I say you should try once, twice or even three times, but if it is beyond your control, why worry about it? Make the most of what you can influence, but always have a plan B if things go south. As for teamworks, I should have been much more patient with fellow students, and actually observe their working process – that way enhancing my thinking and perspectives (as I did in the following semester). Everyone deserves a chance, while styduing abroad, maybe even two chances for a first impression!