Forty years ago, "abroad" meant little contact with home. Times have changed. Today a U.S. study abroad guidance website advises that Internet access is absolutely essential during study abroad, partly for access to local and world information, but "most importantly, it's the best way to connect to one's friends and family back home." The present questionnaire study reports on U.K. graduates who, across two decades, had undertaken a work placement in Senegal, West Africa, during the penultimate academic year of their four-year degree in French. Data on Internet and telephone communications with home, as well as on homesickness and visits to and from home, illustrate the possibility of locating the study abroad experience in the context of available telecommunications in home and host country. The findings are seen as a necessary preliminary to exploring whether more immediate and frequent contacts with home and virtual social networks may impact upon the degree of integration and acculturation achieved during study abroad. (Contains 4 tables.)