Learning the ropes of an internship is one thing, but becoming accustomed to a big city for the first time while starting an internship can make those first few days all the more nerve wracking.

After scoring two internships in New York City last summer, I couldn’t have been more excited – and then the realization of living alone in a city I didn’t know anything about terrified me. From the moment my plane landed at La Guardia, I was a nervous wreck until I made it through my first few days.

By the end of my time as a summer intern, though, I had the interning and city gag down pat. In fact, I couldn’t get enough, so I decided to come back to New York in January to intern again. With three different internships under my belt in one of the biggest cities in the world, here are some tips that helped me become a big city intern faster than I thought was possible.

Timing is everything: Since most big cities rely on public transportation, you will need to leave earlier than you normally would anywhere else. For example, if it takes you ten minutes to walk from your residence to your company’s building, you should leave twenty minutes early – at least for the first few days – to make sure you get there on time. Also, who knows what can happen on any given day. Traffic could hold you up one day, a morning rain shower could crowd the subways, or a longer than anticipated line at Starbucks might hold you back while waiting for your morning Venti Mocha. Always give yourself some leeway because this way, you won’t be late and you will save yourself the stress of worrying about getting to the job on time.

Transportation shortcuts exist: Most transportation systems, such as the subway and buses in major cities from New York to San Francisco, have websites that you can find all the information you will ever need at. However, most helpful is the popular HopStop, a website that will tell you what subway trains to take, what bus to transfer to, and how many blocks you need to walk to make it to your destination and how long all of that moving and shaking will take you. It not only informs you about maintenance hold-ups, but it will give you different routes for you to pick from. And to top it all off, you can use HopStop on your cell phone. You won’t get lost with this website in your life, I promise.

Make friends with the doormen: Whether your company’s office has a doorman or you are running errands for an author out of her apartment, get to know the people working the front desk or building doors. Not only will you have a smiling face to greet you in the morning, but you will have someone that knows the city well to direct you in a time of need. This past January, the doormen at the apartment building I constantly ran errands out of were some of the nicest people I met my entire internship. Constantly helpful, they always made me laugh no matter how cold it was in New York or how many boxes I had to carry blocks away. They will brighten your day, and by talking to them, you will brighten their day.

Band-Aids make good friends, too: I can’t begin to count the amount of band-aids I went through during all my internships. It didn’t matter how old and broken in my shoes were, they gave me big, ugly blisters. Why? Well, because the amount of walking I did while interning was far beyond the normal amount of any day around a college campus. I learned quickly to keep a box of Band-aids in my over-sized bag and everyone should do the same. Trust me, you don’t want to be the girl limping with a bloody shoe. Also, since interns usually deal with a lot of paper, nasty paper cuts are guaranteed and you won’t want to have bloody fingers when handing faxes into your boss.

Keep a detailed notebook: Purchase a small spiral notebook and keep it in your bag the entire internship experience. While you write tasks or errands you need to run throughout the day in it, you can also keep addresses of locations you visit, phone numbers and other contact information, and any thoughts you feel need to be recorded all in the same place. If the notebook has pockets, slide in all the business cards you get. Notebooks also come in handy because you can write directions down in it, which saves you time and embarrassment from opening a huge subway map in the middle of a metro station to see where you need to go. At the end of your internship, you will have pages filled of duties you completed (which will make you feel good about yourself) along with a lot of other information that could one day come in handy (for example, a lot of the locations I visited during my summer internships were places I wanted to go again – and I was able to reference them from my notes during my winter internship). This is a good way to keep all your stuff organized so you aren’t leaving things all over the place.

Keep up the pace: Internships in big cities tend to go at a very fast pace. Make sure you keep up. Some days it will honestly suck and you will probably hate it – but you are there to learn. Soak everything in – the good, the bad, the bloody socks from your new shoes, the compliments from your new boss – everything. You were picked to be an intern for a reason, and as long as you remember that, you shouldn’t stop working hard to show that you really do belong there.

Make the most of it: A major perk of interning in a big city is actually being in a big city! You will have a ton of culture and excitement at your finger tips, so live it up! Although working may wear you out, make sure you spend time seeing what the city has to offer. Not only will you gain immense amounts of work experience, but you will do so in a cultural environment – there really isn’t much more you can ask for during an internship!

In other words, you gotta make sure that you have what you need in the most miniature form possible. Here are some of my personal favorites to keep me prepared without ruining my outfit (or sweet dance moves) with a massive purse.

A wristlet: The right bag is step one to making sure you’re fully stocked with what you need for a night out. I prefer to use a wristlet because I can throw it around my wrist and not worry about it slipping off. Plus, they’re small enough to hold onto all night without crampin’ your style. Try to get one with a zipper – I once lost my ID and debit card due to a faulty clasp.

Lip gloss: But not any lip gloss. Be sure that you buy a shade that you can wear with almost any make up style. That way, you can just keep it in your purse without having to remember to switch it out every night. Also, try to get one that will moisurize your lips as well so you don’t have to take up precious purse space with an additional lip balm. I like MAC lip gloss in Spalicious.

Gum or Mints: I prefer to use mints because you don’t have to deal with wrappers or have to spit anything out. My freshman year of high school, I discovered Certs Powerful Mints for prom. The package has 60 powerful yet yummy mints in a package the size of a credit card. Perfectttt.

Band-Aids: Just stuff a couple in your purse in case of a pseudo emergency. You never know when you’ll get a blister from your cute new stilettos, get stepped on by girls in their (less) cute new stilettos, or need to patch up an unfortunate-looking rug burn. Band-Aids even come in convenient little travel packs of 20 bandages if you’re the injury-prone type.

A Hair Tie: I always keep one or two of these in my bag in case of an impromptu keg stand or game of flip cup. Plus, it doubles as a cheap money-clip of sorts. I put my money, my ID, and my debit card in a stack then wrap my hair tie around it to keep my ish together. I’m a fan of Scunci Large Satin No Damage® Elastics in black.

Important Contacts: No, I’m not suggesting you tote around your little black book. As a safety precaution, be sure you always carry numbers you may need in a pinch. Include the contact information for the university’s police, safety services, and the friends you go out with the most often. Just write it on a little card and stick it with your credit card and ID. You never know the next time you’re could lose your cell phone (or drop it in a pitcher of Sangria) or get stranded across town without a ride.

So those are my essentials. What are your favorite items take along when you spend a night on the town?

There is not going to be anyone there to feed you soup when you have a cold or hand you band-aids when you’ve had too much to drink, fall, and cut yourself on glass. There is only the student health center and they don’t want to hear about your minor ailments; they’ve got a whole campus worth of people with real problems. Like broken limbs… and broken condoms.

Because of this you have to be prepared to take care of yourself when it comes to the minor things: the tummy aches, the colds, the bumps and bruises. And you have to be prepared.

Below is a handy dandy list of things you’ll need to build your very own medicine cabinet. No more unnecessary trips to the Health Center (where they probably can’t help you anyway), or crying to your mom on the phone. Well, you can still cry on the phone, but at least you won’t have to leave the house to get some Pepto.

1) A container

First things first – you’re going to need a place to store your medical supplies. This can be an under-the-bed plastic tub or a cool toolbox you decorate with stickers. Anything you want really, as long as it’s storable. And make sure that whatever you pick can hold a few 20 oz and cans.

2) Band-Aids and Bandages

This is the most basic part of your kit; the thing that you will probably be using most of all. You should stock up on band-aids of all sizes. You never know what you might need one for: blisters, shaving nicks, paper cuts, drunken falls. Also keep a few ace bandages handy. Thanks to the combination of stilettos and alcohol, sprained ankles and wrists are inevitable.

3) Neosporin, Peroxide, etc.

Or pretty much anything you put on cuts to disinfect and keep them from getting infected. Because infection is nasty and can KILL YOU. Seriously – clean your wounds!

4) Medicine

And not just pain meds either. I’m talking about cold and flu stuff as well. I don’t know how many times I had to walk to the damn Rite Aide with snot dripping from my nose because I needed some Nyquil. Not a great feeling. Keep it on hand – both nighttime and daytime because you will get sick and you will have a teacher that doesn’t let you off for it. Also, keep some stuff for upset stomachs as well; that dining hall food can be killer.

5) Ice Pack

Once again, people are constantly spraining stuff and, chances are, you don’t have a frozen pack of veggies in the fridge to use. An instant ice pack comes in handy in these situations, especially if you don’t have a fridge. Bonus: also good for hot days in a dorm with no AC.

6) Food stuffs.

Ok, this consists of the foods that you need when you’re sick: saltine crackers, soup, ginger ale, water. That’s it. Nothing special and elaborate. Just some things to get you through the worst of whatever is plaguing you so you don’t have to go down to the cafeteria and ruin everyone else’s meal with all your hacking and wheezing.

7) A flashlight and extra batteries

Ok this technically has nothing to do with meds, but you need these things and where else are you going to keep ‘em? The electricity goes off all the time in dorms. All. The. Time. And you need batteries for all your stuff (yes, even that); nothing is worse then being sick and realizing you have to actually get up and change the channel. Stock up!

So there you have it; an easy-as-pie supply list to keep you going semester in and semester out. Good luck and stay healthy!

Luckily, I didn’t give up. I tried every product in or around the foot care section of Duane Reade before stumbling upon an ingenious blister blocker: surgical tape. It stays on for the entire day and is thin enough to not create any discomfort between your feet and your oh-so-fabulous shoes. It works great as a preventive blister measure; and in my case so many times, after the fact to keep those shoddy band-aids in place.

Even better, though, is the fact that it is clear; making it less obvious you’ve wrapped your feet up like a post-op patient.

While my surgical tape is always in my purse, there are a few new blister protectors out on the market gathering rave reviews. I’m looking to try band-aids new blister blocker stick, which looks like a teeny-tiny stick of deodorant and smells pretty damn good too. (A co-worker showed the new goods during our after work drinks as we swapped blister tips.) It works a bit like deodorant as well, as you just apply it on your foot before you hit the town.

Another new product I’m dying to try (if twenty extra bucks ever comes my way) is invisi-sole. Unlike other products, this rubber-like liquid is painted onto your shoes, instead of your feet, and is pulled right off at the end of the night. With invisi-sole there is no sticky residue or unseemly tape lines to deal with. But for $19.99 for 10-12 uses and roughly 30 minutes drying time, it takes way more planning than the other quick fixes.

Unfortunately my feet have already sustained permanent damage from my uncomfortable shoe habit. Luckily, there’s always my trusty surgical tape and a few new products just waiting for my rigorous tests.