By Brian Freedman

No matter what kind of study abroad program you choose -- from spending a semester at a foreign outpost of your home school to enrolling in a private university and taking classes with the local students -- you will, as soon as you arrive, realize that you're not in Kansas anymore. This will be both exhilarating and terrifying, and the way you react to it once it hits you will likely determine the way you spend the remainder of your semester or year abroad. The ultimate goal, though, is to parlay those feelings of uncertainty into something bigger and better than you ever thought possible. And the best way to do that is by vowing to try something new every single day of your sojourn.

This piece of advice may seem like nothing terribly revolutionary: Everyone, from your mother to your study abroad adviser to your aunt Maude, likely gave you all kinds of words of wisdom prior to your departure. And whatever it was they implored you to do or not do (perennial favorites include "Always wear clean underwear in case you get stopped at the border," "Always carry your money and passport in one of those nylon pouch necklaces," and "Never drink the water. Anywhere. Ever. No matter what"), this promise to try something new is far more important than any of those other questionably-useful ones.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "I wanted to live deep, and suck out all the marrow of life." Study abroad will likely be the best time in your life to do just that. The following, then, are just a few suggestions for how you can accomplish it. These are not, however, even close to all the ways you can suck all the marrow from your study abroad experience. There are millions more. But maybe after reading about the ones provided here, you'll be inspired to come up with a few of your own.

But since we're on the subject of marrow-sucking, we may as well begin with food.

If It Looks Gross, Make Sure You Try It
The best way to go from being an outsider visiting a culture to a quasi-local with an insider's understanding of a place is to follow the indigenous eating customs. Remember, you're studying abroad not to merely see a few museums, walk through a couple of castles or palaces, and hit a burger joint or three. You're also studying abroad to gain a deeper understanding of a part of the world that has likely fascinated you for years. How can you possibly experience all that place has to offer by eating the same things you would if you were back on campus?

Between the Internet and the relative affordability of transcontinental air travel, the world has grown rather small in recent years. McDonald's has outposts in Moscow. Starbucks serves coffee in Paris. The Gap is everywhere. But real, local cuisine is still available, and most people in the world still eat the dishes that have been served in their country for generations. So while it may be possible to get Le Big-Mac (as they say in France), it is just as easy to find a truly authentic meal, too.

The point is this: It may not always seem appealing at first, but you'll be shocked to discover how wonderful a whole new way of eating really is. As I have mentioned before, I studied in Paris as a college junior. One of the best meals I had there featured a dish I never thought I would eat: Bone marrow. When I finally ordered it, I was floored: It was rich and tasty and just the slightest bit salty, and when spread on a toast point, it was one of the best, most elementally satisfying things I had ever eaten. And had I not tried it, I never would have discovered what has since then become one of my all-time favorite foods.

A Good Walk
The most popular places students tend to study abroad are cities with vast systems of public transportation and taxis all over the place. It would be possible, for example, to spend an entire term in Paris or London or Moscow and never once walk any significant distance. When everything is a quick train ride away, after all, what is the point of hiking there on foot?

The answer, of course, is that walking a city is about so much more than getting to your destination. Sure, you should absolutely learn the public transportation system in your new country, but a walk is one of the best ways to really get the feel of a place. When you take a leisurely stroll from where you are to where you want to be, you not only see all the neighborhoods you pass along the way -- you could do that from a taxi or a bus -- but you can smell the various neighborhoods and the foods cooking at street stalls and in restaurants, you can stop into little shops along the way and maybe get into a conversation with the proprietor, you can physically make yourself a part of the city in a way that speeding by in a car can never accomplish.

It is the same difference between experiencing a meal through someone's description, and actually tasting it by sitting at the table yourself. And there's no question which one is more rewarding.

You Live There Now, Remember?
When you study abroad in a city or town, you are experiencing it in an entirely different way than any tourist ever can. A visitor, after all, has a strict schedule to keep: there are monuments to see, museums to walk through, meals to plan. But as a student living in a foreign country, you theoretically have all the time in the world for something much more important: Life. Which is not to say that you should miss all of the touristy stuff. Who could ever justify studying in Moscow, for example, without visiting the Hermitage Museum? But there is also a great deal to be said for living in and experiencing a city the way the locals do.

This means trying something new every day. Never had a plate of buccattini in Florence? Get it one day for dinner. Keep hearing about a new café that has opened? Stop on by for a cup of coffee and a snack. Read the local pop culture magazines. Check out the schedules of the city's sports teams. Take a weekend in a tiny surrounding village. And most importantly, talk to people. Be courteous, thoughtful, and aware of the local norms when it comes to conversation, but definitely engage people in conversation -- in their own language. It is the best way to improve your language skills, and no matter how broken your Japanese, no matter how stilted your Spanish or German, the people with whom you speak will likely appreciate your effort. And much of the time, they may even offer to help you with whatever mistakes you have made. You might even make a friend or two this way.

The point is this: When you're studying abroad, the most important thing you can do is try something new whenever you have the opportunity. You never know what you'll discover - about the city, and about yourself.

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