Name: Isabella Moreira
Major: Political Science and English
Minor: Psychology and Economics
Hometown: Tampa, FL
Relationship status: Single
Courtesy: Isabella Moreira
Her Campus (HC): What countries have you traveled to?
Isabella Moreira (IM): This summer I went to nine different countries. First, I went to Turkey for a month, and then I went on a field trip to London for three days. After that I travelled to Czech Republic and I was in Prague for a month; My first weekend I went to Slovakia for one day and I went to Vienna because they’re right next to each other so it was easier to go from one country to another one. After that I had a field trip to Barcelona for three days and after that I went to Germany for a day. I then went to Poland, which was two days and I actually went to the Auschwitz museum. Instead of going home, I went to Nicaragua and I was there for three weeks.
HC: Which country was your favorite and why?
IM: I’m torn between Vienna and London, UK. Vienna was just—I feel like the real European city where you have so much history. A lot of important people are from there like Mozart and there was so much culture and art. It was a different atmosphere. Everything was so organized and you could hear classical music in the street; it was beautiful. London was the home to everything I love, like Harry Potter.
Courtesy: Isabella Moreira
HC: How were you able to travel so much in the summer?
IM: Originally I was planning to go through FSU study abroad program to Turkey only and it got cancelled because they needed a certain amount of people and they didn’t reach that minimum amount. So I researched a different program, CAE, and you can mix-match different countries and do different things and field trips and you take two classes, too.
HC: What was the most memorable/craziest experience you had while traveling?
IM: The craziest thing was going back on the train from Poland to Prague. It was an overnight train and the people working on the train waked me up at 6 in the morning; they were telling me to get up. Everyone’s looking out of the train and we were in the middle of nowhere. I tried asking the lady in front of me but she only spoke Czech so I gave her my phone using Google Translate for her to tell me what’s going on but I didn’t understand her because of the keyboard. Eventually I figured it out and it was horrible. Somebody jumped in front of the train that I was in and they had to move people from the crime scene to take us to where we were going.
HC: Wow that is really scary, we’re glad you’re okay! How did you manage handling all of the costs?
IM: I applied for this national scholarship through the fellowship office and I worked on my application for three months and I got someone to work with me on it because it was really competitive. I won it and it basically covered my entire trip. I applied for the TCA scholarship, which is a different scholarship only for people who are going to study abroad in Turkey. Lastly, I applied for another one, which is more like a grant, from CAE. They basically gave me money to pay for my plane ticket. It ended up being that my entire trip was basically paid for.
HC: How do you feel that your experience has shaped/affected you as an individual?
IM: It was something I wanted to do my whole life. I’m very into international affairs and I wanted to study international law and human rights law and the classes that I was taking were political science classes and they included a lot of visits to NGOs who work with problems in those specific countries so I got to experience a lot of international issues. It’s something I want to keep doing my whole life; it was getting a sense of my dream.
HC: If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?
IM: I would do it for more time. I wish I could’ve done it in five months.
HC: What advice would you give people who want to travel abroad?
IM: With money, budget your money. I only ate out once a day and bought food in the grocery store. For travelling like I did on my own on the weekends when you have free time, plan what you’re going to do within the city and look up the transportation. Google Maps has everything you need to know like what trains to take and when they come and it was super accurate. I was able to do all of these things because of it. Just have an idea of what you’re doing so you can have a feel of each city you’re going to.