Guts

Jana, an RA at my dorm Slezska, is simply fascinating. Currently studying at Masaryk University located two hours away in the Czech Republic’s second-largest city Brno, Jana is from Slovakia, which split from the Czech Republic during the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s. Although she has lived in the Czech Republic for a few years now, she is still a little like us – able to distinguish characteristics that are seemingly “Czech” and spot the differences between the locals and the rest.

But what I really admire about Jana is how courageous she is. A few years ago, she participated in an exchange program that sent her to Minnesota, where she lived with an American family and went to a typical high school. She has also studied in Sweden, and now her plan is to go to South Korea next year because she is deeply intrigued by the culture. Having already won a scholarship, she hopes that she will get through the complicated visa process and be able to skip over to that side of the globe soon.

Talk about a world traveler. Although we, too, are studying abroad like she did and still plans on doing, somehow it seems completely different. I feel like Jana departs with the intention of trying to assimilate into the local culture as much as she can, whereas New York University has conveniently laid everything out for us – amazing trips, helpful RAs, etc. Not everyone would be gutsy or independent enough to make the choices that Jana does.