It’s been about a week since our group returned to the United States from Prague to be with our friends and loved ones for the holiday. Although I love my family and friends, I can definitely say that I miss Prague and everything about that amazing city.

After finishing my Thanksgiving meal, I began to think a lot about my life the past three months in Prague along with the experiences, food, and people that I encountered along the way. As I was eating my turkey and mashed potatoes, I’m not going to lie, I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t eating goulash from my favorite Czech restaurant or a sausage from Wenceslas square.

The food there, although very different from things that I normally eat in the United States, was very good, and it really allowed to go outside my comfort zone and taste things from other cultures that I could never imagine myself eating, such as pork knuckle and duck liver!

Aside from the food aspect of the trip which is what I primarily focused on throughout these blog posts, there were other aspects of the three months abroad that I was really able to reflect on and appreciate.

These past three months in Prague for me were the best few months of my life. Being abroad taught me so much about myself, about other people, and especially about Europe. I think one of my favorite things about studying abroad was that ability that we got to travel all over Europe. I was able to travel to Hungary, Poland, Germany, The Netherlands, and England. Before going abroad, I knew that I loved to travel because from a young age my parents had encouraged me to travel and allowed me to go to Spain and Italy. However, I have gained a new appreciation for traveling after being in Europe for three months.

One of the most important things that I have come to realize while being abroad is (not to be blunt) that many Americans seem to live in a bubble. For example, I live in a small, suburban town a few miles outside of New York City. Something that I have realized is that a majority of people from my hometown stay in my town; it seems that nobody ventures out or even travels/ Everyone seems to  stay in my town, never leaving. Even for vacation… a majority of people seem to stay in New Jersey for a vacation at the Jersey Shore.

After being abroad, I have met so many people who are willing to take a risks and just travel, and this is something that I truly want to do. I met people who put their jobs on hold to travel, and others who wanted to visit every country by the time they are 30 as well as others who picked up and wanted some adventure so they took a job at a hostel on the other side of the world. Maybe it’s just the travel bug that is still infecting me; but because of my experience abroad, it really has changed my outlook of the world. I know now what I want in the future. I do not want a boring 9 to 5 office job; I want to be able to go out and experience things and learn about different cultures because I only have one life to live, so I might as well live it to the fullest, filled with adventure and travel!

Thank so much for tuning in and reading our blog! I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts as much as I did writing them! Make sure to follow our Instagram (@msmutravels) to see my last abroad post as well as those of the other bloggers!