- Visited Barcelona, Spain
- Traveled to Italy twice - visiting Venice, San Gimignano, Siena, and Florence in spring 2004, and staying in a villa in Tuscany for a week in the summer of 2008
- Vacationed in the Caribbean every February between 1999 and 2006, including a trip for my mother and stepfather's destination wedding - in St. Croix U.S.V.I., and St. Maarten and Anguila, N.A.
- Visited my best friend Nicole for a week in Ecuador in 2006, when she was completing her junior year of high school abroad with a Rotary program. We stayed in Quito, but ventured to Banos for bungee jumping and unbelievable views.
As a result, I was not only unafraid of traveling to new countries, but in love with it. In 2008, I started college at the University of Pittsburgh, and the bleak winter weather drove me into my dorm building to dream about having the freedom to travel wherever I wished. I began to research study abroad programs obsessively.
At first, I was unable to decide between South America, Asia, or Europe. Each new option I discovered (in the dozens of brochure booklets I had collected from the Study Abroad Office) made me more excited and less able to choose. I wanted every adventure described in those brochures to be mine. I created a protective circle of potential escapes around me on the floor of my dorm room - a shield against the unpleasant weather outside and the difficulty of schoolwork and making new friends - and for an hour a day I went there to lose myself and my worries.
Ultimately, I decided on France because I had five years of experience with the language from middle and high school, and because I was considering French as a major. The choice that then consumed me was which city or village to study in. Did I want to explore Paris, the Alps, Provence, the Riviera? I spent days researching each - the location, the weather, the regional differences, the food and wine - you've probably realized by now my limitless enthusiasm for travel.
In the end, I chose a program in Aix-en-Provence, France with CEA Global Education to live and study for four months at the Université Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille III. I methodically completed the mountains of paperwork and applications, which required all manner of official documents, a renewed passport, and a trip to the French consulate in Washington, D.C. By the time I was ready to go, I had already invested so much time, thought, and energy in my study abroad that my excitement subsumed all smaller emotions - apprehension, fear, and doubt. On January 17th, 2010 my family wished me Bon Voyage and I was gone.
At first, I was unable to decide between South America, Asia, or Europe. Each new option I discovered (in the dozens of brochure booklets I had collected from the Study Abroad Office) made me more excited and less able to choose. I wanted every adventure described in those brochures to be mine. I created a protective circle of potential escapes around me on the floor of my dorm room - a shield against the unpleasant weather outside and the difficulty of schoolwork and making new friends - and for an hour a day I went there to lose myself and my worries.
Ultimately, I decided on France because I had five years of experience with the language from middle and high school, and because I was considering French as a major. The choice that then consumed me was which city or village to study in. Did I want to explore Paris, the Alps, Provence, the Riviera? I spent days researching each - the location, the weather, the regional differences, the food and wine - you've probably realized by now my limitless enthusiasm for travel.
In the end, I chose a program in Aix-en-Provence, France with CEA Global Education to live and study for four months at the Université Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille III. I methodically completed the mountains of paperwork and applications, which required all manner of official documents, a renewed passport, and a trip to the French consulate in Washington, D.C. By the time I was ready to go, I had already invested so much time, thought, and energy in my study abroad that my excitement subsumed all smaller emotions - apprehension, fear, and doubt. On January 17th, 2010 my family wished me Bon Voyage and I was gone.
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