Time to Tap Out: Staying Healthy Abroad

           When you’re back at school, you don’t think much about health. There’s the occasional cold, maybe the campus bug that comes along at the beginning of the semester, and maybe that bad stomach thing you catch right after finals, but it’s mostly smooth sailing. Besides, what does it really matter? If you get sick for a little bit, you miss a couple of classes, ask your friends to fill you in on what you missed, and forget about it. You’re rarely sick for that long, and you’re rarely all that sick.

            The exact opposite is true of getting sick on study abroad. Sickness is always lurking around the corner, hiding in that extra beer you get offered at the Monday night party (yes, those happen. Regularly.). It’s masquerading as those three weekends in a row you spend traveling, because hey, you’re only studying abroad in Europe once, right? Illness, in its crafty way, waits for you to let your guard down, even for a second. On your grand European adventure, not worrying about much at all, let alone getting sick, is pretty par for the course. It’s the kind of thing you don’t think about at all until it hits you. You’re feeling great, having the time of your life, exploring the heights of Western culture. And then suddenly – wait, what’s up with that cough? Why can’t I breathe through my nose this morning? Why am I exhausted all the time?

            By the time you realize you’ve caught something, you’re already done for. Unlike getting sick at home, where it doesn’t really change anything, when you get sick abroad, it’s a real hassle. Homework, which already seemed like a tiresome chore distracting you from traveling, will now seem like climbing Everest. Traveling, which used to be the goal of study abroad, will become an elusive goal, a fleeting vapor. Nothing makes airplanes and train trips impossible quite like sinus congestion and overwhelming exhaustion.

            Perhaps the worst part of getting sick is the fact that it never quite goes away. Because you’re always out drinking and traveling, you never fully recover. That 48-hour bug starts to look more like a month-long battle with the Mucinex mascot. Used tissues and empty Ricola boxes cover your floor for weeks, standing in solemn witness to your sickness. No silence can escape the sound of your rattling cough. Nothing seems to make it better, and all of your friends start dropping like flies, victims to the same mysterious “traveler’s sickness” you are.

            Sounds grim, right?

            The good news is all of this is 100% preventable. “Traveler’s sickness” isn’t some mystery of modern medicine. It’s not some scary voodoo that kills you when you least expect it. It’s what happens when you’re so excited about a new experience that you forget to take care of yourself. And because that’s all that it is, there’s plenty you can do to prevent it.

-        Regular sleep:

This is probably the hardest item on the list, but it’s also the most important. Sleep is essential for your immune system to work properly, so passing out at 4am on a Monday night before your 9am class on Tuesday morning isn’t going to help keep you healthy. Neither is that double-header of international red-eye flights you planned for next weekend. Past the physical obstacles to our regular sleep, there are the mental ones. The general stress of being in new surroundings with new complications and friends will mean that sometimes you’ll do everything right, and still run into trouble. You’ll skip that party, stay away from travel, and turn in early, but you’ll still spend the night tossing and turning.

So what should a conscientious traveler do? Do your best to go to bed and wake up on something like a regular schedule. For stress relief, go work out or play a sport. The endorphins will make you happier, and the physical work will help your body relax when you finally hit the sack.

-        Don’t overdo it with the alcohol

After getting enough sleep, this is definitely the next toughest item on the list. Telling undergraduates to drink less is like… well, it’s exactly as useless as it sounds. You’re in a country where not only can you legally drink at 16, but where a liter of beer costs the equivalent of $1.50. So you’re going to drink. You’re probably going to drink heavily. Probably too heavily at some points. I really can’t stop you.

What I can do is tell you that alcohol is poison. It’s the most fun poison we know of, but it doesn’t do good things to your body. So if you’re already fighting off some cold, consider not doing that extra shot. Politely decline, and start drinking something that rehydrates you. Because as fun as it seems right now, being stuck in your bed coughing, sneezing, and generally feeling like crap. Make the better choice for yourself, and just wait til you’re healthy to start pounding them down again.

-        Be okay missing out occasionally

In sort of the same vein as the first two pieces of advice, sometimes you need to put your own health ahead of the immediate opportunity to have fun. Germany will still be here tomorrow. If you need to stay in your room for a few days, I can assure you they won’t make beer any more expensive and planes will still fly all over Europe when you come out. You need to give your body, and more importantly, yourself the chance to care for itself. It’s not selfish, or boring, or weak to do that. It’s normal, healthy, human, and necessary. So cut yourself some slack, grab a few Advil, and take it easy.  

            So in summary, keep a good head on your shoulders, try not to stretch yourself too thin, increase your sleep, decrease your drinking, and don’t take yourself too seriously. Sickness is something we all hate, and it’s something you can prevent, if only to make your study abroad a bit more fun.

Being a Foreign Exchange Student (Emphasis on "Student")

So you’re finally settled in as a resident of your country. You’ve hopefully finished all your paperwork (I’m so sorry you had to go through that), and now you can get down to the main reason you came abroad: to study! No, but seriously, while you might want to spend every weekend flying around Europe and getting into trouble, you are technically here as a student, and if you don’t keep up with your academics, they’ll probably throw you out. Or something. I don’t know, but I’m not about to check.

So what’s it like to study in a foreign country, specifically Germany? In my time here, I’ve noticed these few points that you might want to keep in mind:

- More relaxed schedule:

            As a student from the US, I am used to going to a lecture three or four times a week, and doing at least an hour of homework every night (when I’m being a good student, of course). In Germany, and in most parts of Europe, this is not at all the case. In general, your class is a single hour and a half lecture or seminar once a week, with maybe a reading to take care of beforehand. Your entire grade is based on an exam, paper, or oral presentation at the end of the semester. I saw this as a huge relief, and others were concerned by the lack of feedback. Whatever your feeling on this, get used to it. It’s not the only part of German school culture you’ll have to get used to.

- Punctuality:

This might come as a shock, especially to those who’ve read my earlier posts, but the Germans really care about being on time. They expect that you show up to class on time, and they will not be happy if you roll in twenty minutes late with a coffee in hand. Frankly, none of this sounds radically different from how it is back home in the States. The difference, at least in my mind, is that here in your German university, you are a guest. While in Rome, you do as the Romans do, if only to show that you understand the pecking order. You’re new here, which means you’ll have to put in some effort to try to fit in. It isn’t always so bad, however. There are some surprising benefits to being an outsider.
- Being the Foreign Kid:

Growing up through the American school system, I was never the foreign kid. I was standard white bread and entirely unremarkable. That all becomes very different in a foreign country. Your very existence is a novelty that brings untold joy to the teachers and students of your new home. Become used to being pointed out as an example by your professors. As a linguistics student, my being a native speaker of English and not of German was often used to illustrate points. Try not to be offended by this – people are really interested in your home and your feelings about issues that relate to it. They value your opinions, and want to get to know you better. This is almost an exclusively good thing. Sometimes it means the pretty Czech girl who sits next to you in class will have endless questions you really won’t mind answering. And sometimes, it means you exist in a different relation to your professors.

- Professors and Foreign Exchange:

            Professors are people too. They were once students like yourself. And they understand that when someone leaves their country to study in a different nation for six months, they might not be seeing academics as their first priority. Depending on the professor, you’ll either be seen as Student A or Student B. Professors dread when Student As come into their class because they know that they’ll be lazy and disruptive. On the other hand, professors love Student Bs, because they look forward to the “outside perspective” they bring and enjoy learning how professors from other countries teach the same subject. This is why my second bullet point is so important. If you show your professors that you are willing to show up on time and take their class seriously, they will group you in with Student Bs, and then you’re on their good side. Expect easy questions, interested answers, and maybe even some understanding when you come into class half-comatose from that red-eye from London that got delayed on a Monday morning.

- Student Life in Germany:

            Think about how many emails you get per week from your college. Someone had to write each one of those emails. Think about how many people that must have been and how entirely unrelated all of those are from your life taking classes. In the US, universities are enormous organizations of serious administrative complexity. They take in millions of dollars a year from tuition or donations, and they use it create an entirely absorbing college experience. In Germany, college is practically free, and as a result, the administration just isn’t there. Add on the lack of a real campus and the light class load, and German student life begins to look like a ghost town. No clubs, no student associations, no acapella groups and no comedy troupes. Maybe some intramural sports or groups for people with the same major, but nothing like you see in the US. On the flipside, your residential area can be a thriving center of student activity, with parties, barbeques, and poker nights. As always, you get out what you put in.

- Free Time:

            Just like back home, no matter how much work you might give yourself, you’ll probably still find that you can’t fill all 24 hours every day. There’ll be long stretches with nothing to do. It’s the middle of the week, and you have class tomorrow, so you can hardly fly to Paris, and you’ve been combing through YouTube for so long you think you should get paid for it. So what’s an international student to do? EXPLORE! You’re in Germany for a reason, right? Check out your city, go to a park, talk to your interesting foreign flatmates, call up that friend from class who you never really see. If you try to look for the hidden treasures in the place you’re staying in, you might just find them. And you’ll certainly never be bored.