The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. Literally.

When I was younger, I had the opportunity to travel to Italy with my entire family. My grandparents got this amazing house in Montisi, Tuscany and my whole family got to stay there for a week. We each had our own room, there was a giant kitchen, breakfast room, dining room, a huge garden with a pool and a great hall that hosted a harpsichord school.

There was always music flowing through the house, we spent a lot of time with the local people and really got to feel what it was like living in Italy. We went grocery shopping, ate at local cafes and went to festivals and churches.

It was a dream come true and I was hooked on traveling. I later went to the bigger cities in Rome. Florence and Sienna but none compared to the living situation in Montisi. We were traveling at that point, and didn't get to settle in and look at the people and the culture in the city.

The next year, I visited London and Paris for two weeks and had a similar experience. I absolutely adored Paris and London was really cool, but I regretted not being able to really immerse myself. I was staying in the largest cities in the respective countries. There was no way I was going to get the same close-knit experience by staying by staying in big hotels and constantly moving around doing the typical tourist things.

I vowed that when I go to college, I would take a semester to study abroad.

After I entered college, it was after the start of my second year that I realized I needed to make a decision. I was between majors at that point and was struggling to figure out my plan. I walked in to my international program office and asked them about my options.

After doing my research, I determined that the best opportunity for me, was a program not affiliated with the school. It would be MUCH more difficult to get all the necessary paperwork and application together and I would end up missing 2 terms out of the year, but I knew that this was the choice for me. I kept up on all the research and set reminders all over the place so that I would have everything together for the deadline.

Luckily I was prepared ahead of time because the due date changed without me even knowing it and I had to get everything together in a single business day. It was crazy but the stress was totally worth it. i had officially applied and was one step closer to getting the abroad experience I had always wanted.

This blog is not only an outlet for me to write and post pictures about my time abroad, but will act as a resource to future students interested study abroad programs. I hope to post more on my application process, the time leading up to departure, my actual time abroad and experiences as well as the impact of the return back to America.

Happy reading!

Sara