How to take your first profile picture while studying abroad

Studying abroad? You must be so social media psyched right now.

 

You, my good friend, have a free pass to absolutely harass the Internet world with an inhumane bombardment of uploaded Instragrams and “Off to {insert fantastic location here} on a random Wednesday! How crazy is life?!” statuses for the next three-to-five months. No one can get annoyed because whatever you’re doing is probably legitimately interesting. This is no “I’m drinking a coffee on a Monday morning like everyone else because Mondays are the worst but here’s a sepia-toned latte anyways” post. These are cool experiences, and these cool experiences, to an extent, deserve to be captured and brazenly plastered all over the Internet’s many walls so your parents’ friends, middle school ex-boyfriends, and old camp acquaintances can see what a cultured globetrotter you’ve become.

This, my friend, is our documentable youth.

Step One: Find Graffiti 

Thanks Marje, who is in Lille, France

This is obligatory. Customs will simply not allow you to repatriate until you have posed in between some street art and a camera’s lens.

Luckily, graffiti is plentiful and easy to color coordinate with a thoughtfully planned outfit. Plus: you get bonus points if the graffiti is in another language, because then people will assume that you can speak it now that you’re a global traveller even if you’re still only able to say “Hello. I’m hungry. Where is the closest bathroom/hospital?” and a couple of bad words that you looked up in the dictionary when you were bored in tenth-grade Spanish.

 

Thanks Olivia, who is also in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Step Two: Get into Character

Lockett in her natural state (the British Virgin Islands)

The point of this new profile picture is to demonstrate how well you’ve completely acclimated to your new cultural environment. It’s candid, because you aren’t paying the slightest attention to the camera because you’re laughing at your new local friend’s hilarious joke (because you now understand humor in another language) or you’re so completely engrossed in the city around you that you can’t bear to look away for the flash of a camera.

Your facial expression should match the caption: “Lost in thought. Lost in the world.” If you look like you happen to have accidentally acquired an artsy paparazzi troupe that follows you around and respects your good side, you’ve accomplished your goal and have a new profile picture. This photo says, “This picture wasn’t planned; it wasn’t even taken. It just… happened.”

Wesley looking cool in Cannes, France


Step 3: Pander to the Masses

Thanks Anna, who studied at Oxford and traveled to Paris

You want this photo to scream “I am not in the States right now.” Take advantage of popular international landmarks and make sure they’re in the shot. Hustle for a place in front of the Louvre. Climb the stairs to the top of that cathedral in Cologne. Timelapse some waves breaking on an Australian coast at sunset. Everyone will know you’re in a different hemisphere!

Thanks Leanna, who studied in Trujillo and traveled to England

Step Four: Saturate Yourself in Another Culture

Me in Buenos Aires. Tan brought to you by editing.

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