10 Steps to Make Anywhere Feel Like Home: Study Abroad Lessons 💌

was me at secondary school I had lived my whole life in this little town outside of London and honestly I could never imagine myself living abroad it just felt so far away I was scared to go to London on my own I was scared to get a train on my own I had no sense of direction couldn't really navigate anywhere and I'm also quite an anxious person so yeah felt very far away but in my Gap year I won an interrail pass from the EU back when the UK was part of the EU we reminisce

and I won this pass to travel around Europe for a month but all my friends were at University and so I had to go alone much to my parents dismay and it was on this solo travel trip that I started to realize just how valuable travel and meeting people from abroad is to your sense of self I realized I was learning so much about who I am about how the world Works about my place within it from being abroad and at the end of my Gap year I lived for three months in Uganda with the

host family and then I started this crazy degree which I'm now in my final semester of where I've lived in San Francisco Berlin London as well Seoul in Korea Buenos Aires in Argentina and I'm currently in Taipei in Taiwan and it has been the most life-changing four years of my life from just living in other countries in the process of relocating my life so frequently I've learned a lot about what it takes to make a brand new place feel like home especially when it might feel very different from your original home welcome to my process

how to make any new place feel like home number one research and prepare before moving abroad it is so important to do your research just be curious find out as much as possible about the culture that you're going to live in the Customs the local laws the things that people consider polite and proper to do in public the more you know the more prepared you feel the more excited you become and the less intimidated you'll be adjusting to this new environment it doesn't have to be Overkill of course there's going to be so many things

you don't know which is amazing because you'll find them out through living there but just take the time to really engage with the place that you'll be in and it will really enrich your experience there for example when I moved to Seoul I spent a year learning Korean beforehand I started watching k-dramas I started listening to K-pop music I read books about the plastic surgery culture about Korean history about their relationship with North Korea I was so interested in South Korea's Economic Development considering they came from relative poverty after the war with North Korea and

in 60 years became a Powerhouse of Asia how did that happen things like the chi bowls which is this system that the government used to boost certain companies just taking the time to research really changes your experience as you engage with locals and the city number two learn the local language at least a little bit in every rotation City that I've lived in during my degree I have really made an effort to learn the language apart from in Taipei because I'm writing a dissertation and learning Chinese is huge when I lived in Berlin I did

a two-month lingoda language course in German so that I can become conversational I also didn't go to course in Spanish when I moved to Buenos Aires and it just makes me feel so much more comfortable in a place when you can understand signs when you can say hello to waiters this video is very kindly sponsored by lingoda as I say I have taken their language learning courses twice because they are so valuable and in my opinion the best way to learn a language if you're committed to becoming conversational lingoda language Sprints are intense they function

as a two-month Sprint where every day or every other day you have an online class with a native speaking teacher and a small group of other students to learn that language what's insane is if you attend every single class you can get up to 100 of your money back two of my best friends literally did not pay for their lingoda Sprint because they attended every single one so it really helps keep you consistent and provides this accountability to learning a language that you might not otherwise have it's super flexible with your schedule you can book

times at any time of day honestly like whichever time zone you're in you'll find an online class at a time that suits you one of my favorite memories in Buenos Aires was befriending this man who ran our local vegetarian Buffet the first few times I went there I was too embarrassed to try my Spanish so I would always just say like gracias and like run out but over time I was there for four months I would slowly ask more and more questions like oh are you from Buenos Aires oh you know do you have kids

what are your kids names and over time I developed this relationship with him only in Spanish and almost every time I went he would give me like a little cake a little free gift and it was just so lovely and I always felt so homey every time I entered this space and that was unlocked literally only through language so if you're moving abroad living abroad I highly highly recommend putting in the effort I wish lingoda had Chinese cry but they have German English French business English and the courses are just such good quality if you're

looking to improve your language learning experience I highly recommend signing up for a Sprint you can click the link in my description and you can use the code jade20 for an amazing discount and it honestly feels so good to be able to promote this like I just love lingoda so thanks and Goda for sponsoring this video and go sign up if you want to learn language number three this is so important especially in the first month explore explore explore it is so important when you first get to the place to immerse yourself as much as

possible because I have found again and again that when you're in a place for a certain length of time you become desensitized to it it's no longer new and so you stop making the effort to explore with the same intentionality use your initial excitement curiosity interest to build a mental picture of the place do the touristy things do them in the fast like one or two weeks just go to all the big sites why not get a bike or walk everywhere or get on buses so that you can visually see the city constantly study the

map this is so important really get a sense of the different areas of the city are they divided by a river are they well connected by bus and train routes and such a life hack is using Google Maps and saving things saving the locations I have Google Map tags for amazing vegan restaurants that I find where great places to shop amazing potential cafes to study in and as you're navigating the city you can start building these lists so that when you're looking at the map you're not just looking at a flat layout of the city

you're looking at pins from things that you remember that can help jog your memory of where you were this just helps you get a feel for the city and once you're starting to get this feel I really recommend speaking to locals about the different areas so for example I learned that in Berlin prenslauerberg is this area that people think of as bougie a little bit wealthier kind of like gentrified trendy mainly for like you know more upper Market families whereas annoy cone is you know more like up and coming a little bit rougher around the

edges generally cheaper generally more diverse like just you get a feeling of these areas through what the locals think of them and the more of a feel you have for the place the more it starts to feel like home number four embrace the under familiar with curiosity living abroad can be so overwhelming especially if there is culture shock and things feel very unfamiliar but rather than seeing this as a negative thing I really invite you to embrace the newness explore your new surroundings explore new foods even if they seem very different to what you might

be used to engage with the local Community start to see why locals do the things that they do why they really enjoy this food what it means to them how this would be cooked in homes when they were growing up the more intentional you are with your open-mindedness the more love you will find in the city and the culture truly no culture is better inherently better than any other there is no right way to do things there is no right food to be eating time of day to be eating and travel really makes you realize

that your way your Customs is just a product of circumstance where you grow up what you're used to the area of the world you're in and you are also adaptable and flexible and can learn to find the beauty and how other people are choosing to live number five friends and Community damn it can be so lonely and isolating in a new place if you don't have Community I think this is one of the most important things to make a place feel like home it is not the place itself it is not even your mindset it

is people us humans are social creatures even if we want to believe that sometimes you know we're just like only introverts who like don't need anyone else in the world which come on we all have those phases you're like I don't need humans but my God we do we really do I've experienced the crippling loneliness of being in a new city and feeling so alone and it's a really hard spiral when you're in that state because the more alone you feel the less you want to see new people because if you're really sad but that's

the sadder that makes you which makes you want to see people less and you just kind of stay in this locus of sadness which means again when you're in this first month of like excitement use it to join clubs put yourself out there find a group whether it's a language learning course whether it's a sport find ways of making friends and community and be really intentional with asking to meet up being open-minded that's such an important one number six is purpose it really helps to have a clear purpose and understand why you're in a place

why are you there whether it is for a study abroad semester or to intentionally learn the language to escape your home for a bit and just see the world for a new job or to find a job like why are you there knowing your reasons is really helpful whenever you approach this existential dread of being so far away from home because we all have these moments we all have our homesickness and in those crippling moments of like why am I here why am I doing this why am I abroad why did I leave you just

need something rational to pull you out and be like oh yeah it's because I'm really Keen to learn French seven know your personality what are your needs for example I am a big nature person I grew up in a tiny town with a lot of fields and rivers and green and then I moved to cities for the last four years and it was the biggest shock ever moving to downtown San Francisco in the the middle of like Tech Hub world without any parks near me it took me such a long time to realize that nature

is a need for me and I developed a routine where I would go into a big natural space at least three times a week just to feel a sense of self again or for example I'm vegan and in Seoul it's really hard to be vegan and in order for me to feel any sense of home or Comfort I had to find those pockets of Seoul where I could eat a good vegan food or where I could find the resources the ingredients to cook for myself whatever your needs are make sure you recognize them as completely

valid and work them into your lifestyle so that you can access them number eight is create routine based on your existing ones when you move abroad somewhere where life feels very new and unfamiliar it's really important to have something to ground you back to who you are to what you love and the more patient independentness is the better so for example I have a practice of yoga and meditation and journaling and I do this every single morning no matter where I am in the world and this morning routine makes me feel like me it gives

me this semblance of home it reminds me who I am doesn't matter that I'm literally on the other side of the world from my family because I'm grounded here I'm happy in my habits and the way I'm supporting myself so create your routines and ground them in what you know works for you number nine put photos all over your room of your loved ones and things that are meaningful to you right here in front of my desk I have photos of every member of my family and my dog and so whenever I'm working I have

them right here in front of me and yeah it just makes me feel less homesick reminds me of my roots and who's meaningful to me and finally number 10 is call your loved ones often there's really no limit it's hard moving abroad and you also don't want to lose these connections that you've built for so long in other places so make them feel part of the experience keep up with people from other parts of your life but also do mentally commit to wherever you are don't live only in these calls with people from back home

it is such a life-changing privilege to live or work or study abroad a privilege is often dependent on passport strength where you're from the money resources available to you but I also truly believe that if you want the opportunity you can find it there are scholarships out there there are resources out there there are programs seize it like seize these opportunities to live somewhere else because I promise you it will change your entire perspective on the world and yourself in the best way and I really want that for everyone it's not easy it's really not

but through that hardship you just learn the most incredible life lessons there's that classic quote life begins at the edge of your comfort zone and in many ways that is true the more that you expand this comfort zone through living in other places I just think the more rich life becomes anyway thank you so much for watching I really appreciate you being in this corner of the internet good luck on your travels or studies or work abroad go see all those Adventures you've got this [Music]