An international student’s guide to keeping in touch with friends and family

Studying abroad is really freaking cool! You experience a ton of new things, you get to be independent, meet new people, learn a lot – but there’s no hiding it can be difficult. One of the challenges is keeping in touch with friends and family from home. And, if you’re lucky enough to go home during holidays, keeping in touch with uni friends from home. Here are some of my best tips and tricks in order to not forget to talk to your parents for three weeks straight when you first arrive (I’m sorry parents)! 

1)    Have a private story on Snapchat or Instagram
Listen, I know we all use social media, but we all use it differently. I’m a kind of private person so my social media feeds are carefully curated, consisting only of my very favourite pictures and exciting things I do (such as drunkenly singing along in the LCR). However, I created a private Snapchat story to post a single stupid joke, and now I just post all kinds of weird stuff on there. And every time I think “this is so silly” and nearly every time at least one friend will text me a laughing emoji or comment on what I posted, and boom, conversation! Even if nobody replies, you’ll be surprised to see how much your friends enjoy seeing an uncensored feed of your silliest thoughts and the ridiculous things you do (such as posting a photo of your whiteboard with “REMEMBER OFFICE HOURS” on it, in caps lock and surrounded by exclamation marks, and then posting the next day that you forgot to go to the office hours…) 

 2)    Schedule calls with family
I feel like there are two universal moods for an international student, there’s either:
a) I really miss home and want to talk to my parents at all times or 
b) I’m busy and having fun and keep forgetting to talk to my parents. 
Having a set time to talk to them solves your issue either way! When and how often is up to you, I keep to once a week and some of my friends have a time every day, either is fine, everyone is different. But having a set time sorts your issue by either
a) by giving you something to look forward to or 
b) by making remembering a bit easier.  

3)    Text friends whenever you think of them, no matter the reason
Some friends will be texting you all the time, some friends you will be texting all the time. However, some friends you might speak with less often. Friendship takes effort like any relationships, but I find an easy way to keep in touch is to text them whenever I think of them, for any reason. “Hey, I’m watching this TV show I know you like!” “I just remembered this fun thing we did last year, what a blast” “Hey, I miss my cat, please send me a picture of your cat thankyouverymuch”  

4)    Stop worrying about it!
Yes, it’s important to be a good friend/ family member, but don’t make it a stressful affair. Your best friend will still be your best friend if you don’t text them every single day. Your family will certainly still be your family if you have to miss your weekly call occasionally. I find that when I come home, I feel just as close to all of my friends, even if we haven’t talked for a while. They all get it. Student life is a stressful affair, and most of the time they have been busy too. Just enjoy your cool new life and look forward to telling all about it when you meet again!