Hello to all who have  found themselves on my study abroad blog- one of thousands covering a semester spent in a large European city, I’m sure! I told myself I wouldn’t give in to the blog ‘hype,’ but I found that I (and my parents) very much enjoyed blogs created by some of my other friends on their traveling journeys, and I thought I would try it out.

As I’m preparing for my imminent departure, I’d thought I’d give a little bit of an introduction to the thought process behind choosing Prague as a home for four months, as well as some quick notes on a summer spent in a place not like Prague at all- Sacramento, CA.

I’m entering my junior fall as a Whitman College history major. The (somewhat impractical) versatility of being a history major allowed me to have a great deal of freedom when choosing a study abroad program, and after coming very close to studying abroad in Jaipur, India, I decided that Prague sounded like a very exciting possibility. Having traveled very little, the idea of going to a European city that was popular, yet a little bit beyond the reach of the average tourist traversing Europe, seemed like a perfect in-between. I was also interested in learning more about  Central Europe’s rich historical past, with Soviet control only a couple decades behind.

And so it was Prague, where I will be participating in the CIEE Central European Studies program with about 200 other American college students (of which I am the only one from Whitman). I am off in a few days, and I can’t wait!