How to Balance School and Travel

Before coming abroad, I severely overestimated the amount of travel weekends I had. I quickly realized, minus spring break, I only had 7 weekends to travel. My school in Italy has a very strict attendance policy, one can only miss two classes. At the third, your grade is lowered a letter grade and at the fourth, you fail. For every holiday that classes are cancelled for, there is a makeup day on a Friday. The saddest part is, all of these makeup days are when it's finally getting warm outside. Here's how I balanced studying, classes and made the most of my travel weekends.

1. Plan Everything in the Beginning of the Semester

The first thing my friends and I did was sit down and plan out where we were going each weekend. We tried to plan things based on the weather, going to the colder places -- like Switzerland and Austria early -- and the warmer places -- Barcelona, Croatia -- later.

2. Don't Underestimate Getting Sick

With such a strict attendance policy and the excitement of traveling, it's easy to pretend that you're not going to get sick all semester. You have to take into account that you are in a new country and have spent a lot of time traveling in filthy airports. Leave at least one absence free in case you get ill.

3. Do Your Work Before You Leave

After traveling all weekend, you're going to be exhausted. Don't put off homework and projects for Sunday night. Spread your work out throughout the school week so you can travel without the extra stress.