Student Handbook - Staying in Touch with Home

Although it’s important to devote your time to seeking out new experiences and interactions, current technology also makes it easy to stay in touch with family and friends. Here are a few tips for communicating with them while you’re abroad:

• Let your family know when you’ve arrived and inform them of all subsequent travel plans.
• Use affordable methods of online communication such as Skype or instant messenger systems.
• Contact your family if you know of an event in your host country that might cause them to worry (i.e., extreme weather conditions).
• Notify your family when problems you have told them about have been resolved.
• Do your best to try to solve problems on your own or with local help, as a minor difficulty may sound like a major crisis to someone at home.