1. What you think before going
2. When you think you know the language, and then natives start talking at full speed
3. When you want to go on a trip
4. When you still don’t have a social life
5. When people insist on imitating your accent
6. When people ask you how long it has been since you last saw your friends and family
7. When you need to write a paper and you’re just like
8. When you spend too much time on your phone and your family is like
9. When people ask you how you could leave your family behind to move abroad
10. When people don’t think you speak the language
11. When you are among other people from your country
12. When people say you party too much
13. When people eat strange foods
14. Your constant food intake during the year
15. When people ask you things about your country
16. When people take you to a place you haven’t been before
17. When you still can’t quite express yourself the way you’d like to in your host language and the best conversations happen in your head
18. What you want to say to the younger you who thought an exchange would be all rainbows and unicorns
19. When you wonder why you even started an exchange in the first place
20. When you have to go home and part of you is like …
… but the other part is like
Please note that these GIFS should be taken with a grain of salt and can never represent everyone’s experience.