The real truth behind Prague for me.

Prague Bridges

Oh Prague...what can I say about you? I haven’t even gotten there yet and I’ve already felt like I’ve been living there vicariously through you online. However, I will say that despite my excitement for my study abroad site, it wasn’t and realy still is most definitely not my first choice in terms of where I wanted to go abroad by any means. Its sort of a “settling” of sorts, if you will. You see, originally I wanted to go to the NYU Paris study abroad site, but as my life would have it, a) Paris had limited course offerings b) Filled up far too quickly before I could even try applying and c) My adviser didn’t think that Paris wouldn’t “fit” into my concentration, which for some reason really angered me. But that’s beside the point, well...almost. Instead of being in the romantic city of Paris, I’m instead off to a land of erm....pork and beer? I guess I’m being slightly bitter about the whole thing, but when I start to really think about it, I’M GOING ABROAD TO EUROPE FOR AN ENTIRE SEMESTER!!!! How many people are able to say that they lived in Europe for months at a time? As the French would say, a nice sojourn (sigh).

My francophelia aside though, I am very much excited to go to Prague, especially because the International Journalism perspective of my Gallatin concentration will be put into full effect here, as I will be taking extensive classes in the field of international journalism, while gaining experience by working at a European publication (though I’m still not sure which one I’ll be assigned to just yet, because they are going to assign me to one if I so choose during my first week’s orientation in Prague). By taking this international perspective in journalism (admittedly, Prague was the only NYU study abroad site that offered such a sequence), I think I will be a much more well-rounded reporter if I so choose that as my career path and I can follow in the footsteps of my personal role model, Anderson Cooper. How amazing would it be to have a job where travel was the requirement? I’d love to do that, and Prague especially provides the venue in which to gain an honest Eastern European perspective on the rest of the world. In other words, Prague, here I come!