¡Hola!
My name is Paulina, and I lived in Mexico City until I decided I wanted to go elsewhere. Not because I didn't like it but because I was studying International Relations there and I was not feeling a natural "international" environment.
(this is me in Mexico, not long after that picture was taken around my university, I told my parents I wanted to study abroad)
I started looking for options abroad. Literally, on the filter, I selected every country except Mexico until I found the Masaryk University in Brno. That was not huge but not tiny, not very cold during winters, affordable, with job opportunities, the chance to travel, and a study program that I liked. Then I applied and was accepted to Masaryk University in Brno.
I have been here since February 2021; it is the best decision ever made. I went outside my comfort zone to experience many new things with new people in these two years, which feels like a lifetime.
However, the change had a lot of challenges, too: moving to another continent in the middle of a pandemic and taking online classes in a language that I was not so used to, moving far away from my family and far away from the warm winters, missing some important events back home...
(and this is me seeing snow for the first time)
That is why I want to share my experiences with you, so you know that this overwhelming feeling of being abroad is happening to all of us, and that is ok. Maybe the tips I have gathered from the people around me, from my family and friends back home, from me googling "how to …", or even from my discovery when I decide not to share some issue with anyone (not even google), will help you to make the process easier. We are more than 50,000 foreign students in Czechia, and we all face different challenges, so remember, you are not alone.
Na shledanou!