What you should REALLY do.

Blog Post: What you should REALLY do.
Originally uploaded by chlorinebeach.

While I was filling out my evaluation from the London program, one of the questions I came across was

If you were to advise students going on this program, what would you tell them?

I had been planning on doing a blog post along those lines, so I took it as a nudge from the universe to update my damn blog already!

-BUY A CAMERA CASE. BUY ONE. It doesn't have to be fancy, but (including myself) FIVE people broke their cameras over the course of the trip. You know what sucks a lot? To be at the beginning of a great weekend trip and smash your camera. BUY A CAMERA CASE.

-Bring a canvas bag with you on vacation that you can roll up and shove in your backpack. You will buy things while you are out walking around, and you will not want to carry around multiple shopping bags. I brought a bag, and all of my friends were jealous of me. :)

-Bring a few different pairs of good, decent-looking, comfortable shoes. But don't bring too many pairs (GIRLS!!!), because you will buy more. I'm not even a serial shoe-buyer and I bought like three pairs.

-Go see stuff. Walk past a play you think you want to see? Walk straight into the box office and buy a ticket. There is so much stimulation in a city that if you see a poster + think "I'd like to do that", and don't immediately do something about it, chances are you will forget about it and then have big time regret!

-Don't wear that ugly sweatshirt in public! Seriously, you guys are what gives America the ugly tourist reputation. And stop yelling while you're on the street. Calm down, nobody is going to die.

-Take pictures. Upload them regularly.

-No fears. It all works out in the end.

What would you say are some of the less obvious tips you would give somebody going abroad?