Studying in Strasbourg was the first opportunity I had to really live abroad, and try to figure
out how to make my life in a country where I didn't completely understand the language.
My house mother taught me how to cook French food, and we would sit around the dinner table
and talk about stuff, everything was in French, she hardly spoke a word of English.
So I learned to adapt, I learned to integrate myself into a new community, and talk to people
and meet people, and understand a culture.
The classes are also very rigorous, one of my professors actually, when she found out
I was very into Broadcast Journalism and had some experience in that way, she helped me
kind of get a press pass into the Counsel of Europe and I did a couple of freelance
stories, just on my own duck into a panel discussion or a little something like that
and just did it for fun.
You have to branch out and get to know French people and do French things.
In Strasbourg, I learned how to have fun on a budget.
You can rent a bike for 5 Euro and ride your bike as far as you can into Germany on a Saturday
and take the train back.
The awesome thing is that every first Sunday of the month, all of the museums are free.
So we would have our first Sunday of the month day and we would all go out and see as many
things as we could in Strasbourg.
We just had fun.
There are a lot of young people in Strasbourg, it's a very young demographic, there are a
lot of Universities and that kind of thing.
Now that I have this experience of living abroad I feel like if I'm able and have the
opportunity to go into International Reporting later on, I'll have that base, and I think
that I learned when you meet the most incredible people and you try the most amazing food and
you just kind of see things, understand the history of the region in a new way because
you're there!