Also be prepared to return to all those little trials you left behind you. You might have journeyed far, far away, but they haven't. Returning home is wonderful in so many ways. You can talk to family and friends without a phenomenal fee, you can eat at your favorite restaurant, sleep in your own bed, and whatever else you were looking forward to doing. Just as it is possible to dramatize the glory of your return home, it is also possible once you've returned home to over-romanticize your experience abroad.
Life is never cookie cutter perfect.
Home is not the impenetrable haven you might remember it as at times, and life would still not be flawless, even if you were back in the host country you left behind.