<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" I&amp;#039;m sure you guys have already heard (since I&amp;#039;ve been blogging, Facebooking, tweeting, and otherwise shouting off the rooftops) that I&amp;#039;m going to London for a month this summer with a study abroad program offered by Fresno State. I&amp;#039;m beyond stoked. As soon as I was accepted into the program, my mind was filled with thoughts of accents and red buses and Big Ben and all of that cool stuff.  Don&amp;#039;t get me wrong, that all sounds awesome, but I didn&amp;#039;t realize that I&amp;#039;m four months away from any of that stuff. In order to get there, I had to fill out mountains and mountains and mountains of paperwork.  So a few things to remember when organizing your own study abroad:  Passport. A lot of people forget about this, but most countries don&amp;#039;t just let you waltz in and out. Get the process started early because it takes a long time. And try not to judge yourself by your passport photo. It&amp;#039;s like the DMV\u2014not pretty. Know where your program office is. You&amp;#039;ll need to go there pretty much every other day. There&amp;#039;s paperwork for tuition, program fees, plane tickets, travel insurance, health insurance, and converting dollars to whatever currency you&amp;#039;ll need in your destination country, among other things. Your writing hand will feel more dead than it did after AP testing.  Find a buddy. For short study abroad programs like mine, I&amp;#039;m going with a group of about twenty other Fresno State students. Since I&amp;#039;m not going to get the chance to fully immerse myself in a foreign country and make new friends given the way my program is structured, I knew it was important to make sure I went with someone I could feel comfortable spending three weeks with. Someone I knew would have my back if I got lost in the tubes or wanted to go to a pub. Fortunately, a girl I&amp;#039;ve been in school with since the seventh grade, Amanda, is also going on the trip. We&amp;#039;re even going to make a side-trip to Paris together on one of the weekends!  The point is, it&amp;#039;s a lot of planning. But it&amp;#039;s worth it when you get to experience something so different from wherever you&amp;#039;ve grown up. AND I&amp;#039;M SO EXCITED! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a20522/pre-study-abroad-tips/>