6 Ways To Make The Most Out Of Thanksgiving Break Before Going Abroad

No matter what grade you’re in, coming home from college for Thanksgiving is one of the best times of the year.

You get great food, you get to catch up with your home friends you likely haven’t seen since August and Thanksgiving break means it’s officially time to start listening to holiday music.

Junior year is extremely bittersweet.

You realize you’re more than halfway done with college, and the real world starts to hit you as you learn that you really just don’t know "how to adult."

If you’re like a lot of college juniors who are going abroad next semester, this feeling becomes even more complicated at this time of the year.

Thanksgiving Break definitely brings a wave of emotions for those of us not coming back to school next semester, and these thoughts are bound to cross your mind in the next couple of days:

You’re a little too excited to be going home.

As we draw closer to finals, everyone is more than stressed with research projects, papers and exams on material from the beginning of the year that no one actually remembers/paid attention to.

Thanksgiving break allows us to put all of that off for one more week, and stuff our faces with food as we forget about our impending doom workload.

Thanksgiving is literally the most American time of the year.

Since you’re going abroad in a little over a month, this is the perfect time to pack everything the country stands for into one holiday.

Between stuffing your face with classic American food (with no judgment, I might add) and watching football with the fam, what more could you want?

You’re most likely in for a culture shock soon, so remember to store these memories in a safe place for those homesick abroad moments when you're feeling a pang for your motherland.

You finally get to see your home friends...

Unless you go to school with any of them, chances are, you haven’t seen your friends since August.

Now’s the time to celebrate Thanksgiving Eve and reminisce about the people and memories you left behind in high school, while catching up on every juicy detail that's happened to you all over the past semester.

…But you’re sad to leave your college friends.

Especially your roommates.

You’ve been spending most of your days (and nights) with these people for the past three years, and the thought of going an entire semester without them is practically unbearable.

Leaving them for Thanksgiving break is like a test run for your semester abroad, but you’ll be back with them in no time.

You’re probably starting to think about packing.

When you head back to school after Thanksgiving break, you’ve likely only got a few weeks left before crossing the pond, most of which are going to be filled with late nights at the library.

Deciding what you’re going to bring back to school this week will ultimately make you realize that you need to start packing for three months abroad, which is basically as daunting as packing for college was freshmen year.

Luckily, Thanksgiving marks Christmas music season, so while you pack, you can finally add Justin Bieber’s Mistletoe album to your Spotify queue.

Don't pretend like you haven’t listened to it this week already.

You’re starting to realize how weird it will be to not see your family.

Traditionally, college breaks are pretty spaced out, so you get to go home frequently to see your family and pets.

This is the last break before Christmas that you’ll have with your whole extended family, and it’s going to start to dawn on you that after December, you won’t see a lot of them until after you come home from abroad.

Start panicking.

Between the American traditions, seeing your family and hanging out with your home friends, Thanksgiving break is bound to be a relief from the finals stress you’re going through.

Still, it ends up being bittersweet as you start to wonder where the semester went.

You’re definitely excited to go, but also sad to leave.

So make the best of your break -- as well as the last weeks of the semester -- and get pumped for the upcoming months abroad, because they're gearing up to be some of the greatest experiences of you're entire college career.