Students
The first weeks in another city: a student's list
Transport, local number, bank, healthcare and people. The order to sort them in, and what can wait until month two without any fuss.
Claudia Ferrán 6 min Photo by Oleg Zarevennyi on Unsplash The first two weeks abroad are a funnel of paperwork, and the feeling of being behind on everything is universal. It helps to know what is genuinely urgent and what can wait.
The first week
- Connectivity: without data, everything else costs twice the effort.
- Transport: a student card or pass, which usually needs a certificate from the university.
- The university paperwork, which opens the door to almost everything else.
- And a supermarket card and a pharmacy you have located, which sounds minor and is not.
The second
- A local number, if the country asks for one for paperwork.
- A bank account, now that you have an address.
- Registering your address, if it is compulsory.
- And a GP, before you need one.
What can wait
Furniture, decorating, the gym and half the country's apps. Nobody has failed a semester for not having the bike-share app in their first week.
Four things are genuinely urgent. The rest is the list that makes you feel bad for not going faster.
The part nobody writes down
Meeting people is another item on the list and is worth treating as one: sign up for whatever the university organises in the first weeks, even when you do not feel like it, because after that the groups have already formed. The first-month slump is so common it has a name in every language.
And to talk to people back home without it costing you, see how to call from abroad.
Frequently asked questions
What do I sort out in my first week studying abroad?
Connectivity, transport with a student pass, the university paperwork, and locating a supermarket and a pharmacy.
When do I open the bank account?
In the second week, once you have an address, which is what they almost always ask for.
And the local number?
When the country's paperwork calls for it. For talking to people back home you do not need one.
Is the first-month slump normal?
It is so common it has a name in every language. Signing up for whatever the university organises in the first weeks helps more than anything else.
