Whether you have chosen to study languages, or you have simply decided to apply to go abroad for year, Erasmus, or any other international program for that matter, is a daunting process.
When your university's international office first explains the steps you will have to take to qualify, the deadlines and the requirements, you immediately feel overwhelmed and your previously strong will to go spend a year in Rome crashes.
As you go through the application process you realise paperwork is not the end of the world and you soon receive information regarding the location of your year abroad, which will inevitably lead to a celebration of epic proportions or a mild form of depression. By the end of the university year you realise you will miss your friends, professors and even the terrible weather bitterly and suddenly regret ever deciding to go abroad. But fret not, you will get over all this very quickly.
Once you arrive on location you do have few panic attacks, for example when you realise your German, Spanish or French is terrible, or that there is no way you will be able to really understand your professors.
However, after a few weeks settling in you start immersing yourself in the culture, you discover which national beer is best or how to make sangria, as those are the pillars of the local culture.
By the time you come back to your university, you will have completely forgotten the concept of hard work, but will have learnt some valuable skills. And that's what really matters.
