The International Student Blog

Keeping in touch while abroad

Posted on December 17th, 2011 by Jenny Frankel

There are so many exciting aspects of going abroad. With new food, new scenery, and new languages, there is a lot to look forward to! However, being thousands of miles away from friends and family can be hard. Your support system is suddenly an ocean away, which can be a very scary feeling. Thankfully, there are many great ways to keep in touch while abroad, so you can have the time of your life exploring a new country while still staying connected to people back at home.

Skype

Skype is one of the best ways to keep in touch with people. Not only can you chat, but you can also video call! As long as you and the person you are trying to reach both have the service, you can talk through the computer, with or without video. This is a great option because it allows you to actually see your friends and family, which makes being away from them a lot easier.

Care Package

Never underestimate the power of some good old snail mail! Sending the folks back home a package full of little momentos from where you are and a nice note is a great way to stay in touch! Sure, it may take slightly more time, effort, and money than a phone call, but it’s nice to have a personal touch on occasion!

Blogging

Blogging is such an easy way to keep in touch, and lets you reach a huge group of people at once. Anyone can quickly and easily set up a free blog using a service such as WordPress or Blogger. You can write about your day to day experiences abroad, and share pictures and videos.

Most international business programs have a requirement or at least an option to study abroad, so if you’re interested in pursuing a degree in international business you can take a look at some of the top programs in the U.S. Keeping in touch doesn’t have to be hard! With minimal time and effort, you can still stay connected to the people you miss back at home.

What are YOUR favorite ways to keep in touch?

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 17th, 2011 at 12:39 pm and is filed under International Student. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Written by Jenny Frankel

Jennifer is the Director of Financial Services at Envisage International. Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Florida where she holds a Masters in International Business and a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration. She has lived and worked abroad in Chile, Costa Rica and London, and traveled extensively in South America, Europe and Asia.

3 Responses to “Keeping in touch while abroad”

henley business school Says:
December 20th, 2011 at 11:51 am
the best way to connect with family and friends is skype while you are in abroad
Mina Says:
March 25th, 2012 at 2:39 pm
When my daughter studied abroad last summer I was able to talk to her for two months for about $80 total. The way to do this is to buy a TracFone prepaid phone, which can be as cheap as $15 (make sure you but the one that comes with double minutes for life) and a 60-minute card. This plan allows you to place calls internationally to more than 60 countries for same-as-local rates – that is about 3 cents a minute. With a 60 card you can actually talk a good amount of minutes several times a week. We only talked about the necessary things – quick updates on where she was and how things were going. So limiting our conversations to the basics was important. On occasion she called me on my TracFone from her cell phone, which cost her some but didn’t cost me any more than a local call. Having this prepaid option was the smartest thing I did.
Abdeljalil Says:
March 26th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Abdeljalil…

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