1. Journal
Journaling, to take a page from the oldest of books, is of course one earliest ways to record your time anywhere. However, as an exchange student it’s a valuable tool to record your time in another country. A year after you return home, imagine what it will be like to read what you were doing a year ago today– did you try a new foreign food you forgot about but now you’ll crave because now you can’t find it in your home country? Or perhaps you want to remember the little moments of when you had a totally independent conversation with your neighbor in your target language. Whatever it is, a journal can give a firsthand account of your own experiences.
Beyond that, if you are learning a new language, doing a small (to start) daily journal in your target language can be a powerful tool in language acquisition. This journal will both help your language proficiency and act as a token of your progress by the end of your stay abroad.
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2. Scrapbook
Every scrapbook is a unique reflection of the scrapbooker. Mine tend to be a meticulous outlay of disguised chaos, complete with hidden pockets and flaps with pictures hidden underneath, and signatures from new friends I make on each adventure. I’m a bit of a hoarder, there are pictures of course, but there’s sometimes receipts, tatters of tickets, crinkled candy wrappers, bent brochures, and various other assorted items. While other scrapbookers I know are much less serious about it, just keeping the most important items (up to every individual to decide what counts as such) and sticking them haphazardly into a scrapbook or another notebook they already keep. Meanwhile some others even lean towards the sketchbook side of scrapbooking all together.
When it comes to scrapbooking I can of course advise best on my own strategy so here are a few photos from my scrapbook from my time in Hungary and my current scrapbook from my time in Austria. One thing that really helps with my ability to scrapbook independently is my HP Sprocket Printer, this isn’t sponsored anything (I wish it was though with the amount of photo paper I go through), it’s just a great photo printer for being handheld. Not to mention the photo paper has the possibility to peel and stick for easy transfer for scrapbookers!
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3. Journal-Scrapbook Combo
This option is a pretty straightforward combination of the journal and the scrapbook but offers great flexibility in the regard that all your thoughts and ideas are in one place.
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4. Social Media Account
This is the New Age way to not just keep a record of your time abroad but share it in real time with friends and (possibly) family. Some people choose to use their current social media account but many exchange students both at the highschool and college level also opt to start a new account just for this time abroad to act as a true record. Some people do this as a way to teach people about the places they’ve been, some make it a simple record of the places they’ve been, there’s have done regular updates about life in the place they study. There are countless ways to make a social media account about your time abroad. Since I have not kept an honest study abroad account, I believe the best way to show a few examples is from study abroad pages I follow.
Alli Hunt, 21, Minerva University Student, CLS Recipient, and Past Rotary Youth Exchange Student to France. Has studied in: Taiwan, UK, Argentina, India, and others! As of now this blog follows Alli’s adventures all over the world, in various programs. https://www.instagram.com/globallii
Avelisse Guzman, 21, Montclair-Graz Sister City Scholarship 2023-2024 Recipient. Currently studying in Graz, Austria. As of now this blog follows her adventures in Graz, around Austria, and through Europe. https://www.instagram.com/ave_abroad
Roman Massa, 20, Past Rotary Youth Exchange Student. Previously studied in Central New York region on his exchange. This blog is now private. When active it followed his exchange every few weeks or so highlighting his personal and cultural experiences in the Central New York Region.
ella_the_fairy. Past Rotary Youth Exchange Student to Belgium. This blog is now private, but when active followed an exchange in many of its small moments and famous sights. This blog was also perfect for the camera shy, as ella_the_fairy relied on pictures of ella, a small fairy figurine to stand in where you would normally see a person.
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5. Make Movie
Do not think Hollywood; think VHS Home-videos. Everywhere you find yourself take 10 to 20 seconds and take a video clip. The trick to this sliced magic is to make sure you consistently take the video the same way. It doesn’t matter which way, consistency is what matters. At the airport? On the train/tram/bus/subway? Waiting for class to start? At a cafe? With friends? It’s Raining? It’s Sunny? Captures bite sized moments of your year abroad from this city, this country, you’re growing to know. When you’re leaving, take leaving shots. The goodbyes, the packing, the bittersweet landing.
When you’re finally home you can splice it all together. While I haven’t done this myself, when I was studying in Munich I had a friend who did. I haven’t seen the finished product but I’m looking forward to it. And even if you get lazy and don’t splice it right away yous till a beautiful 2D, pictures and sound digital motion memories of your time abroad to look back on.
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6. Keep A Blog!
Similar to a scrapbook a blog will reflect the individual who builds it. There are at least a dozen ways to do it. You could simply make it a digital daily journal or you could make it a monthly recap. Perhaps you want to blog about something more specific and create an advice column for other study abroad students or just want to share the culture shocking moments you can’t get over. Beyond the material the format is another question with the blog, as nobody is bound to the written word (unless you made a deal with a witch by moonlight but that is neither here nor there). Don’t forget, vlogs are the new blogs and blogs are the new, well, I’m too young to know.
If you’re looking for some good old fashion blog references though, this portion of the Rotary Youth Exchange Website has a handful of some standouts. Even within that list though I especially recommend you check out My Finnish Exchange, My Exchange To Japan, and My Year In Brazil
If you’re looking for a place to start your blog, my disclaimer is I am not tech savvy and I do not pay for this site– I’m a college student in the humanities after all. Despite the colors maybe not being great, the site is relatively easy to use, especially after a youtube tutorial. Beyond WordPress other blogging sites include Weebly, Blogger, and I’m sure other’s I’m unfamiliar with.
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Conclusion
All in all those are just 6 of I’m sure dozens of other ways to keep a record of your time abroad. Think about your interests, your skills, are you an artist? Writer? Speaker? Social media savvy? Think about what you already enjoy doing and use it to help you figure out how to best help you record your time.
The most important thing though is to keep a record. Barely a year before my first exchange I was in the car with a friend and current exchange student named Iván, from Chile. Ed Sheeran’s song Photograph was crooning through the speakers and he got emotional, saying that he understood this song’s lilting lyrics, because when his exchange was over, all he would have left of his time here would be the time frozen in those photographs.
BND ABROAD 