First post

Hello everyone!

Well after drifting through a seemingly indefinite winter break (everyone 22+ is outraged right now while reading this), I am finally on my journey into the unknown.  I left home Thursday morning only to delay my flight to NY until Friday because they overbooked the flight and were awarding volunteers with 400 dollar vouchers.  Cha-ching, easiest money I've ever made.  The long weekend has been great in New York so far.  My sister and I have eaten well, and have had a good time.  But tomorrow we all leave for Prague.  I have been anxiously awaiting this day for weeks as Paige has been there for two weeks now filling me in on how awesome the city is and all has to offer.

I might as well answer the questions that everyone has asked me upon learning of my study abroad destination.

1. Why Prague?

The most popular question for obvious reasons.  Well if you know me (and hopefully you do if you're reading this), you know that I never like doing what people in the past have done.  I didn't want to be the 20th person people knew going to London or Paris.  I didn't want to go to Australia because the travel opportunities were limited, and I couldn't do Africa.  I briefly considered Asia before finally deciding North Central Europe was where I wanted to be.  It basically came down to three cities for me; Prague, Copenhagen, Denmark, or Stockholm, Sweden.  All three were solid choices, and I believe I would have been happy no matter where I ended up.  The deciding factor?  Money.  The other two cities are known as two of the most expensive in the world, and Prague is consistently ranked as one of the most reasonable.  Prague is not on the Euro yet, and employs a generous exchange rate to the US dollar (roughly 17 Czech Crowns to 1 US dollar).  O and it doesn't hurt that Prague is one of the few places in the world where beer is cheaper than bottled water.  I also had a couple of really good friends who had intentions of going to Prague, which made the living situation much easier.  People who have studied in Prague or visited have all gone out of their way to RAVE to me how amazing the city is.  No other destination did I receive such encouragement to go. For all those wondering, Paige going to Prague had nothing to do with my decision.  I chose Prague before she even knew if she was going abroad.  That being said I am very happy she will be there sharing the same experiences as me.  The central location, enchanting history, and familiarity with with those alongside me made choosing Prague an easy decision.

2. What classes am I taking?

Good question.  Our program  CEA is an independent study abroad broker that pairs us with the Anglo-American University in Prague.  While we picked classes back in November, they won't tell us for some stupid reason what classes we are taking or when.  However, if I get my desired schedule, I will only have 4 classes once a week Monday-Wednesday.  That means I can travel for 11 days while only missing one week of class, which I definitely plan on doing haha.  I'll keep you updated on my actual schedule upon receiving it.

3. Where am I living?

The program provides us with an apartment conveniently located in the city center.  Prague is divided 11 sections (maybe more) with 1 being the absolute center of the city.  I will be living in Prague 3 so pretty central to everything.  I'm living with two of my friends from school Ian and Brian who are both my roommates for next year in Madison as well.  We're either all gonna be friends for life or hate each other by the time we graduate next year haha, hopefully the former.  Our other two roommates are two guys from Indiana who I'm very excited to meet.  Also excited to remind them how irrelevant their school is athletically (83-20 anyone?)  They both seem reasonable and nice from the limited amount of communication we've had through email or facebook.

4. Why is this blog called Beers of Europe?

This was actually a suggestion by my Dad so don't go assuming I'm some alcoholic.  The beer in Europe is unequivocally better than it's American counterpart.  Prohibition in the early 20th century killed the American beer-making industry and now we're left with 3 awful main distributors and a handfull of up and coming very good microbreweries.  Maybe American beer will make a comeback, but for now, Europe is way better.  Thus, I plan on tasting various types of beers in every country I travel to.  I'm also extremely excited to try the original Budwesier in the Czech Republic.  They actually sued the American Bud because they were around first, but obviously the Busch company fought this.  I'm very excited to keep you all updated on which beers I find most enticing.

Well that's just about it for now. I have one more night and a half day tomorrow in New York before we take off for a direct flight to Prague.  Please pray that the lovely NY snow storm tonight doesn't delay us.

Thanks for sticking through all the way to the end of this post.  And thanks in advance for following me and keeping up with my adventures abroad.

All my best,
Sam