How to let everyone know you’re studying abroad

You’re on an Erasmus placement. You’ve worked (kinda) hard to get there, so it’s time to annoy all of your friends and family back home with constant updates necessary to inform them on how fucking great it is. Here are the definitive ways to tell everyone you’re away and having the time of your life, while they aren’t.

Instagram

This social media app is the key to making your friends back home, stuck inside due to the foul weather, incredibly jealous. From gorgeous landscapes with #nofilter #erasmus #insertcountryhere hashtags to group photos with your amazing international squad, your Instagram is just so much better than their posts of food and lecture notes in Liverpool. One of your favourite things to do is to post cringey tourist photos alongside edgy videos of techno rave nights just to show how fucking cool you are.

Man of many talents: cringe and thoughtful x

Because people miss you so much, it’s important to post as many photos of the people that come and visit you and emphasise how much they love being reunited with you also. All the lovely selfies of you with your friends and family involve a description of how much you appreciate them travelling all that way to come see you – in a way that’s shady enough to signal a message to those who couldn’t make the effort to come, they’re just not as good a friend.

Friends who visit each other, love each other

Instagram is the place where you really show off and look a lot cooler than you actually are. You post loads of techno rave videos and lots of beautiful places of you on your travels across Europe; in actual fact you do partake in both of those but throw in a lot more standard commercial nights out where you eat cheap ass food and pre-drink on scarily cheap vodka. Final tip: always include a location on your photos – this allows your growing follower base to keep on track with all the different cultures you are experiencing.

Snapchat

Snapchat is for your every day debacle of going to your actually interesting lectures and whether you have enough money in that Erasmus grant to afford that trip to Krakow and go out that evening. Snapchat provides a video commentary to all 3 of those questions being “Yes.” Make sure when you’re in the city centre and see something pretty or when you’re visiting a new city you use the city snapchat filter which tells those watching where exactly you are and how gorgeous it is.

It’s also your biggest weakness because it will cause you to loose the facade that you’re #edgy. For example, when you’re on a night out and that mental Spanish song that you’ve learnt most of the chorus of comes on and you passionately sing half the words to your camera. Not cool man, you’re better than this. Nevertheless, Snapchat everything you do – you won’t have wifi everywhere and let’s be honest, you haven’t bought a new SIM so just document your life and wait for the next moment you will have free wifi.

It’ll also show that you’ve ‘accidentally’ taken up social smoking because it’s so cheap and you can smoke inside in most clubs here, but that’s fine, they’ll understand.

Candid snapchats + obligatory club selfies are hella important

Postcards

In order to show that you still care about your family and friends at home, make sure you send them occasional postcards and presents. It still shows that you think of them occasionally, mainly when you’re not spending time with your new friends and you feel a bit alone whilst preparing for a presentation. If you have a special someone back home, then make sure you send them cute meaningful presents just so they don’t feel so shit about having their lover away from them for so long.

It’s cute I still think about you guys from time to time x

Facebook

Facebook is key for you to show everyone all the amazing photos you’ve taken on your travels as well as hilariously funny candid photos of you and your friends. Make sure you look like you’re interested in the politics and current affairs of the country you now call home, so constantly share articles that most of your friends back home find irrelevant – it helps you look cultured daaaaarling.

To further annoy everyone back home, make sure you click attend on every event you see online whilst away. From ‘Erasmus boat party’ to ‘Cheescake festival’ and art gallery openings, by clicking “interested” in these events, it reminds everyone who doesn’t already know that you are away that you have a very varied life. Finally, keep active on your squad chats with your house and course mates at University – even just an occasional “omg this totally hilarious thing happened last night…” will do. Your story will most certainly be the topic of group in the house when they’re making dinner or at pre’s talking about how much they miss your company.

Squad goals on facey b

FaceTime

Finally, make sure you still FaceTime your friends and family enough whilst you’re away. You will say many things like “oh my god you’d love it here”, “I’ve found myself, I’m a new person” and “you can smoke inside here!!!” quite a lot. But hey, the receiver of the call will be used to hearing these sort of basic ass comments, because, let’s be honest, the amount you’ve posted on social media about your “life-changing” months abroad is so overwhelming that they basically know what you’re doing before even you do.