The Innocents Abroad 1869 / Study Abroad 2009

“We wish to learn all the curious, outlandish ways of all the different countries, so that we can ‘show off’ and astonish people when we get home. We wish to excite the envy of our own untraveled friends with our strange foreign fashions which we can’t shake off...The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become, until he goes abroad. I speak now, of course, in the supposition that the gentle reader has not been abroad, and therefore is not already a consummate ass.”—Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1869


"We're here, Let's get drunk!!" - Hundreds of Thousands of American College Students Studying Abroad, 2009



I work in a study abroad office. Each year I am partially responsible for sending over 2,000 students to all parts of the world to study for various lengths of time. Even though it was written 130 years ago, this quote still perfectly describes the consequences of one's first time out of their home country. Several years ago, I worked for a company that sent high school students abroad on package tours that averaged about a week in length. The first quote has always stuck with me and I hope it will with you too. For further information; the University of Virginia has put together this comprehensive guide.

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