The Lone Wolf

  The year abroad is one of the most complex life experiences that someone in their early twenties could go through. Packing a bag and heading into the world at a time of your life when your biggest decisions are what colour VK to get on a Friday night and what pizza topping you will order to cure the resulting hangover. Whether heading to the other side of the world or hopping to the other-side of the Channel, the adventure and it's respective challenges are the same. You have a new language, a new environment, new people to meet and new parts of your own personality that you have to get to know.

  There's many layers to the whole thing that people on their year abroad go through, and 95% of it isn't what people post on Instagram (or what people write in blogs). It's going down to the shops for some bread, sitting in a group of natives joking around and adapting to life in a new country with all of the routinely quirks that it brings. Some of it is great, some of it is less great, but all in all you know for sure that when you leave your respective English airport you're diving into the deep end.

Grab your goggles. 

  Personally, one of the biggest parts of this year has been the independence. When I went to Argentina there was no familiar faces waiting on the other side, and Brazil has been the same. I've been lucky to meet some great people along the way, but I've embarked on this experience as a lone wolf. It's never the thing you preempt when worrying about stuff pre-year abroad - that's reserved for Visas, accommodation and what the word for 3G internet is - but I would say it's definitely been the biggest challenge for me so far.

  Having travelled around Australia as a solo traveller when I was 18 (on that gap yahh), I felt like I knew the ropes of the lone wolf thing quite well. Hopping from hostel to hostel, bus to bus, city to city; meeting some great people and some people that belong on the same bearable category as Katie Hopkins. You spend time with people regardless of whether you like them or not, as any company is value and having someone to take a picture of you is far superior to an awkward selfie. You learn that there's no issue with wandering city streets on your own - it can even be better - and sitting down for a beer and burger does not require a partner.

It's like a first-person video game story; travelling doesn't need to be a multiplayer game. 

Still not mastered the casual
'I want a pic with this but
there's no one to take it' selfie

  What I never previously realised though was how different this would be to that. The distance between moving, permanently, to a city and spending a few days in the touristy backpacker's bubble is enormous. I found this difficult at first, and still to do to some extent, in the fact that you can't put the pressure on yourself to constantly be visiting monuments, exploring neighbourhoods or generally just doing stuff. When you backpack, you're up against the clock, as well as a load of obnoxious knobs that claim to have lived the whole STA Travel brochure. There's no time for Netflix or chill. 

  Considering I've been in São Paulo for nearly 3 months now, there's no way in hell I'm filling every spare second on the tourist trail. As a more 'serious' city than Rio de Janeiro, SP only possesses enough honeypots for a few days of exploring anyway. That leaves a lot of free time to fill. My current work hours are 2pm-8pm, ensuring that the most potential-filled part of my day is snatched away. I missed Chelsea winning the league on Friday as a result of this... 

As a 21 year old student, I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that mornings are not the most productive time of the day for me. This results in a lot of the typically pointless languishing around that can only truly be performed by a university student. Scrolling the social medias, eating biscuits, watching half an hour of football montages that takes me from Barcelona to Hitchin Town. It doesn't change just because I'm in another hemisphere; it's an art form. Despite this admirability, it is easy to feel unfulfilled after a few hours of this. 

Bear Grylls does it alone, why not you?

You question whether you're 'doing the year abroad wrong' and whether you're wasting your time. Technically, you are, but you're very much entitled to do so. In my case, I've seen everything I want to see, and so much more. There is no stone unturned of this mighty, mega metropolis. No one can be expected to live the life of a Lonely Planet contributor 24/7. The important thing is to establish the difference between moving to another country permanently and just going on a holiday. You're living the same life as you might in the UK, just in a way cooler environment that is there for you to take advantage of when you please. 

  I would say that on weekdays, outside of work, I spend a solid 90% of my time on my own. I meet friends at the weekend to party, enjoy life and what not, but as I live in a house with some less sociable Brazilian adults, I mostly have to entertain myself. This is definitely what I miss most about the UK. At uni, when you come home from lectures, you hang out with your mates. At home you have a coffee with your Mum when on returning from work. My current situation is a long way from that. The day-to-day activities and general down-time are spent in the presence of my own company. Luckily, I like my own company but it can very easily get claustrophobic if you're not having a good day.   

 As I mentioned, it's a long way from the cover-shoot stars of the Instagram posts and Facebook albums, but it's the most important part of this whole thing; for me, anyway. You learn a lot about yourself when you have to embark on life on your own - especially on the other side of the world. I feel a lot more fearless about post-university life than I ever did before. I mean, if I've moved to Argentina and Brazil on my tot, what could be much harder than that? 

Lone caipirinha in a hammock?
Sem problemas. 

  I'm sure there'll be people reading this in Spain, Germany, South Korea, Australia, Cuba etc. reading this having a little nod to themselves. If you've ever spent time in on your own in a foreign country, then you will relate to some of the stuff that I've just mentioned. We all get the bombardment of questions and excitement about when we saw Christ the Redeemer, or went to New York or sky-dived, but I think it's important to recognise the less glamorous side of it all as well. After all, coming through the harder parts is the biggest achievement. The fact I can happily hop on a bus or top up phone credit or chat to an Uber driver without any problems means more to me than a picture of a world wonder (though if the picture surpasses 200 likes - this is a lie).

This was the first article I've written without any real purpose. It's been more of a trail of thoughts and, as a result, the structure of it is a bit all over the shop, but what else is a blog for. I guess it's a bit of a guide/ piece of advice for anyone that is about to embark on their year abroad next year, and a bit of a pat on the back for current students currently experiencing the same stuff. We're all in the same boat at the end of the day. 

With year abroads soon coming to an end, we will all soon be at family dinners or in the local (s**thole) nightclub being fired at with questions about Carnival, the Eiffel Tower and the Sydney Opera House but, at the back of our minds, we'll know that this stuff is just plastic compared to the feeling when Jefferson the local supermarket guy remembered your name or when a local stopped you in the street for directions. It's the imperfections that makes things beautiful. 

Thanks for reading and for 10k views. Lovely stuff.