My Study Abroad Experience

Getting on the plane at RDU was one of the most nerve-wracking and exciting experiences. My childhood self was finally living her dream of going to Europe. I wasn’t sad leaving North Carolina, the only home I’d ever known for almost four months, until I spent a week in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is great… it just didn’t feel like home. NC State Prague was really good about giving us a thorough tour of how everything worked; it was nice seeing a city that I had dreamed being in for the entire year. However, leaving home and getting off a plane to be immediately met with so much to do, was overwhelming. In my journal, dated 09/05, six days after we got here, I wrote “After the first day, I was exhausted. Then came day two and I was anxious. By day three, my feet hurt so much, I could barely walk.” After all the exhaustion of the first week, I spent the entirety of my first Saturday in Prague sleeping and homesick.

The second week being in Prague, we had Czech survival language courses. This was fun and interesting, plus it helped me out a little in the grocery store. The grocery stores here are out of my nightmares because I didn’t know where anything was at all. One of the coolest things to experience was seeing a Russian feminist musical group called “Pussy Riot.”

The second weekend, we found ourselves in Cesky Krumlov, a town about 3 hours away from Prague. I ended up sick for the entire weekend unfortunately, but my roommate was a lot of help and brought food back to me.

Speaking of my roommates, I love them and would have been way more homesick without them in the equation. They have become my family.

Finally, we started classes during our third week in Prague, I was very excited about this as I’m not used to having such a big break between classes since I normally take summer classes. Basically, I was getting bored not using my brain. To end it all, one of my roommates had her phone stolen, so that was not very fun.

The next week, I found out I had COVID. I had a whirlwind of the first few weeks. Being sick in an unfamiliar place, alone in a hotel room was very scary. I have asthma, so I was constantly freaking out, but I ended up being completely fine.

After everything being a little overwhelming during September, October was really a great month. I traveled to Berlin, Germany, and Vienna, Austria. We also had Halloween and midterms.

The first week of October consisted of the NC State vs. Clemson game, which we watched in a bar, and because of the time difference, we were there until about 5 am. I enjoyed it though, even if I was exhausted the next day. In my English class about protest and dissent literature, we were able to go to the Library of Forbidden Books during Communism. I really enjoyed seeing all the self-published copies and how they printed the books.

Berlin, while it’s definitely not my favorite city, I still managed to have fun there. I enjoyed being with all of the people I have become friends with and learning about the history of the city.

Vienna is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve been to. I really enjoyed my time there and eating at this yummy cafe every morning. We left on a Thursday so I spent all of Friday seeing the city and going to various museums. However, on Saturday, I had to study for my European Politics midterm which I was very stressed about.

Midterms went well, I did better than expected on my European Politics midterm, so I was very thankful for that. We spent hours before the midterm at a cat cafe, so I think that helped.

Halloween was one of my best memories here, not exactly the night itself but all of the excitement leading up to it and finding a good costume. Halloween isn’t as popular here, so it was nice to bring that part of home here with us and be able to celebrate.

Lastly, I went to see a ballet, La Fille mal gardée. I really enjoyed it; I had never seen a ballet before.

The most exciting thing that happened in November besides fall break, was going to Tesco at 11 pm, I don’t know why this was so fun for me, but I enjoyed it a lot.

November was spent in cafes and doing a bible study on Wednesdays, this was a very relaxing month. We also had friendsgiving, which was so fun.

Until fall break… I went to Italy with two of my friends. I had been waiting on this trip my entire life.

First, we went to Venice and spent two days there. We ate at this cafe, on the mainland, where everyone was so friendly, and we drank a liter of wine when we got to the island. We spent the first day going to St. Mark’s Basilica, eating pizza and pasta, and going to Doge’s Palace. On the second day, we met up with another friend and her boyfriend, and we all shared a gondola. It was much cheaper that way. I was very nervous about the gondola because I hate small boats, but I am so glad I did it.

The third day was spent in Treviso, the home of prosecco and tiramisu. I ate a huge piece of tiramisu and loved seeing the town. I also bought a coat because I didn’t bring one with me to Prague, it was time because it had already started snowing.

On the fourth day, we went to our new Airbnb in Thiene, a beautiful town with an incredible view of the mountains. It was pouring rain the entire day so we stayed in and watched three movies, I really loved this day.

On day five, we went to Verona, my new favorite place. It was incredibly beautiful and took my breath away. I ended up walking around alone and got slightly lost, but it wasn’t a big deal.

Finally, we left Thiene for Bergamo. We had a flight back to Prague around 8 pm. It took us a while to get to Bergamo because we had to change trains a couple of times, but I didn’t even mind. I was just happy to see more of Italy.

Now, we are at the end of November… I go home in 20 days. I can’t say I’m not excited, I’ve missed my friends and family a lot. I miss Bojangles, I miss Food Lion and I miss a lot of things I took for granted. Nevertheless, I will miss Prague and all of the friends I’ve made, but I plan on keeping in touch. I’ll miss the public transportation, my professors and Johnny’s Pizza. I’m super grateful for this experience, even if I felt a little overwhelmed at times.

December will consist of ice skating, finals, Christmas markets, goodbyes and going home.