Good weather, wine and beaches: Sometimes, studying abroad is all it's cracked up to be

Today, while all you Hopkins kids were studying in MSE or listening to lectures, I was wearing shorts and a tank top, wandering through a vineyard and tasting fine Chilean wines.

You could be jealous. Or you could channel those emotions productively and go check out study abroad options.

While unfortunately wine tastings are not ubiquitous on study abroad programs, studying abroad will always offer a variety of new experiences, and often in ways you don’t expect.

For example, my program didn’t start until late Feb. That gave me an insanely long winter break this year. So, instead of spending it watching Law & Order reruns (admittedly a tempting prospect) I was able to get an internship with the International Humanitarian Law department at the American Red Cross.

It was interesting and rewarding work; it kept me busy and out of the house, and it gave me something to put on my résumé, since apparently watching even a relatively intellectual TV show doesn’t do that.

I learned things that were actually relevant to my intellectual interests at school, such as contemporary issues surrounding the Geneva Conventions, I experienced working in an office and I met many people willing to write recommendations and give me career advice in the future.

In fact, my networking at the Red Cross might serve me well while I am here in Chile.  One of my colleagues put me in touch with someone from the Chilean Red Cross, and now I might extend my stay here beyond the semester and work for the Chilean Red Cross over the summer.

That means another few months of practicing my Spanish, living independently in a new city, gaining more experience in fields that actually interest me and  once again — adding to my résumé. So for all you super career-oriented Hopkins students who think that straying from the D.C. area is too much of a stretch, this study abroad thing can really pay off.

The program I’m currently on, run by the School for International Training (SIT), also requires an independent research project at the end of the semester. This presents an opportunity for publication as an undergraduate, and a lot of previous students have used their SIT research projects as springboards for senior theses at their home institutions or graduate schools in subsequent years.

Finally, there’s the fact that sometimes, life at Hopkins can kind of run you into the ground. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve enjoyed my time at Hopkins, made great friends and sincerely believe I will have a lot of fun there my senior year. But it’s also been a huge relief to step outside the zone of hyper-competitive pre-meds and engineers, meet new people and settle into a new lifestyle.

Studying abroad is not always all about the wine tastings and gallivanting about.

I attend real classes, conducted entirely in Spanish and have homework and tests and all that jazz. It is indeed studying abroad. But simply being able to do that in a new environment makes it somehow less exhausting than Hopkins.

Maybe it’s the fact that I’m surrounded by opportunities to explore new places, or that I’m constantly meeting new people (who sometimes teach me to do totally new things, like salsa dance), but I’m never as stressed about school here as I am back at good old Johnny Hop.

So for the sake of your studies, your future career and especially, your mental health, look into some study abroad options. The possibilities might surprise you.