Studying abroad can be an exciting time full of new changes, people, and experiences. Consequently, you can often find yourself in funny situations or unexpected culture shock moments. Take a look at our student comments and see the odd interactions they have got themselves into!

 ‘I went to Taiwan and it smelt of stinky tofu everywhere we went.’

-   Taiwan

‘I went to get my haircut and when I went in everyone was giving me funny looks. Many awkward silences later I realised that there was a secret door and I had most likely accidentally found myself in a brothel!’

-   Taiwan

‘One of my friends got so drunk that they kept trying to get into the big underground bins, screaming “I want to be in resto!” - it took me and two strangers to finally drag her out!’

-   Spain

‘My French flat mates were always naked and watched porn casually in the living room’

-   Spain

‘My friend started feeling my leg trying to find my knees for some reason, couldn’t, then invited the rest of the group to also try and find my kneecaps’

-   France

‘Went to a party and everyone was really strangely enthusiastic and screaming their lungs out, we finally got to the front and see everyone is losing their minds over a twerking contest – everyone was really giving it their all and I suspect there would be a few sore backs in the morning!’

-   USA

‘A Tunisian boy fell in love with me, he said ‘I confused him internally’’

-   Spain

‘I met someone who refused to eat yoghurt with a spoon, he would just squeeze the pot and slurp it up all in one’

-   France

‘I invited someone to have lunch with my friends and I and he pulls out a raw chicken breast out of his pocket. No packet, just a slip of cling film and no context. During the entire conversation he kept prodding and poking it and it made us all very uncomfortable to say the least. He then lifted his hat up and he had another breast underneath it – safe to say my friends never let me invite anyone else to eat with us again!’

-   USA

‘We stayed in an Airbnb and hadn’t realised it was a room within the host’s apartment. Turned out we would be living with his five cats and hairdresser boyfriend who worked from home. He was also a maths teacher, and we came out of the room one morning to find a whole class sat in the kitchen. Then we found out he was a famous French vlogger and made us all go on his live stream and speak to random French people while he disappeared for twenty minutes. Most awkward experience of my life.’

-   France

‘Two of my flat mates fell out over a heater, one of them only spoke French so I was the only one who could communicate with her (I don’t study French, I have GCSE French). One day I walked into the kitchen to them “arguing” passing a phone with Google translate on between the two of them’

-   Spain

‘We went for a hotpot (turns out it was duck blood!) let's say it was not to our tastes, but the waitress was really eager and insisted we take home the leftovers. So that’s how we ended up going to a cocktail bar with a plastic bag of loose duck blood. Yummy.’

-   Taiwan

‘My flat mate woke me up at 5am crying because her phone was stolen, I didn’t know this girl at all.’

-   Spain

‘We were having a few drinks on the train and there was an old Romanian guy sitting across looking at us woefully. We decided to give him a couple of our beers and he was delighted and started singing. Anyway, time passes and then his wife just rips off her smelly shoes and he just goes and massages them in the middle of the hallway. Absolutely incredible – and he let us take a selfie with them!’

-   Romania

‘Where do I even begin?’

-   Portugal

Do you have a funny or strange tale from your Year Abroad? Let us know over on our Instagram.