Managing My Time Abroad

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I thought I would have plenty of free time during my semester abroad. Back home I workย full timeย while attending school. On top of that, I am also in tons of extracurricular activities. Since I donโ€™t work orย am involvedย with extracurricular activities, I am able to dedicate my time toย full-timeย school. However, I used to live at home and have my meals prepared by my mom, now Iโ€™m living in a dorm preparingย my own foodย or looking for restaurants. I also haveย to beย flexible about when I do my laundry and not do itย last minuteย because sometimes the washing machinesย are occupiedย for hours.

At my school, each class is three hours long so we only have to come once a week. But that gives me 6-9 hours of class the days I do attend, and traveling every weekend tends to eat up my days. There wereย a couple of timesย when I arrived home late on Sunday night from my trip and have class bright and early the next morning. In at least two of my Monday classes, I have a quiz each week. I quickly had to learn how to manage my time.

Before I went to Morocco last weekend, I knew that I wouldnโ€™t be able to do my work over the weekend because my itineraryย was packed with activitiesย so I tried to do as much as I could before I left. I had a math quiz to prepare for so I spent 2 hours each day studying and doing practice problems leading up to the day I left. I printed out all the readings I had to do for all of my classes. It was a 4-hour flight so I read and highlighted everything on the plane. The professor gave us a lot of discussion questions for class so I answered all the questions so I could be ready for class. On the way back to Prague, I used the 4 hours on the plane toย reviewย for my quizzes.

I made sure to use my time wisely because I knew I would get home late and I would be too exhausted to study. I wanted to go to bed as soon as I could because I would have 9 hours of classes with small breaks in between and I wantedย to beย readyย to beย an active participant in class and to not be falling asleep.

I always make sure that no matter how tired I am that I always make it to class on time. I made it right on time and took my two quizzes and Iโ€™m happy to report that I received an A onย both.

I donโ€™t want to just get by in classes, I want to do great in them. I donโ€™t want my grades to go down while Iโ€™m abroad. Itโ€™s not always fun to plan every minute of my day and get my work done early especially when Iโ€™m not in the mood to do it, but I always appreciate it when Iโ€™m on my weekend trips and I can just enjoy myself instead of worrying about my work not being done.

Me enjoying myself in Morocco.

Erin Moran

<i>Hello in your host country language</i>: Ahoj <i> University</i>: Bergen Community College <i>Expected graduation year</i>: 2019 <i>Destination</i>: Prague, Czech Republic <i>Program Provider</i>: CCIS <i>Major / Minor</i>: Information Systems <i>Demographic background</i>: First-generation, Hispanic-American <i>Future career aspirations</i>: IT Project Manager <i>Top 3 goals for study abroad</i>: To gain independence; To hone communication skills; To learn a new language.