The cognitive, affective, and social challenges of language learning during study abroad have been well documented (Freed 1995a; Parker and Rouxeville 1995). Although young adult learners may be better at disguising their distress than my then 14-year-old son, quoted above, it seems that most learners experience a similar sense of dislocation in their new environment. This paper draws on journals and other qualitative data from undergraduate exchange students in the Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean to explore how these challenges affect learners.