Friday, June 5, 2015

How to Alleviate Your Parent’s Worries When You’re Abroad

By Michelle Futo
 When I asked my parents if I could study abroad in Leysin, Switzerland for the first six weeks of summer, they were excited but also very vocal with expressing their worries. How would we stay in contact? How would they know where I was and my travel plans? As an only child, I had to find ways to make sure my parents felt comfortable with me traveling to Europe so all of us could enjoy my experience. Here are a few tips I picked up that I used both at home and while I was abroad.



Communication
Keep the lines of communication open as much as possible! While you may be annoyed with the amount of emails they send you, your parents just want to make sure you are safe. It’s not you they do not trust, it’s the world. All of the IP Study Centers have Wifi access for students, so make sure to reply to those emails! Even a few simple sentences with some photos will make them smile and feel closer to you, even though you are over 2000 miles away.

If you have an iPhone, iMessage also works even when your phone is on airplane mode. You can easily send texts, photos, and short videos to your parents through iMessgae without having to turn on your cellular data. FaceTime is also a great option. I was abroad for Mother’s Day and even though I was not physically with my mom, I know she loved our FaceTime date.

If you have an android smart phone, I would recommend downloading Viber. Viber is a free messaging application that also sends texts, photos, videos, and even allows users to make phone calls through Wifi. Help your parents download the application to their phones, set up their free account, and play around with sending messages before you leave the country. This way you can still talk to them and share all your experiences without having to purchase an international phone plan.

Register Your Travel

Prior to leaving the U.S., explain to your parents that you are registering yourself in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) through the U.S. Department of State. STEP is a free program that allows U.S. Citizens who are traveling abroad to enroll their trip with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. Some additional benefits to enrolling in STEP include receiving important information from the Embassy about safety conditions in the destination country, helping students make informed decisions about their travel plans, helping the U.S. Embassy contact you in an emergency whether natural disaster, civil unrest, or family emergency. After entering your personal and travel information, the step-by-step wizard will help you stay connected to the people who matter and who will help you out in case of any emergency. Parents can also sign up to receive email updates about information dealing with the country you are traveling to, again keeping them in the loop about your travels. 
You can register here: https://step.state.gov/step/

Create a Blog
If you are a writer, a photographer, or just want to have a simple way to keep your friends and family at home updates with your travels, creating a blog gives you a perfect way to share your experiences quickly and easily! Free websites such as WordPress, Weebly, or Blogger allow users to make an account and customize their personal blog to share text, photos, videos, and any other interesting information that happens while abroad. You can easily upload some photos from your weekend trip to Venice and write a quick post about how amazing your gondola rides were. Sharing the link through email or Facebook will give your friends, family, and especially parents a way to track where you travel and what you are up to. I know my mom always looked forward to my blog posts and it also is a great online journal I can always re-visit now that I am back in Tallahassee.

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