Studying Abroad In Europe: The Beauty In The Struggle

By Uloop Writer on April 23, 2015

There is beauty in the struggle and ugliness in the success. That is the greatest lesson I learned during my time abroad in Prague.

Let me explain. If you are as fortunate as I was and able to travel to Europe, traipsing around from city to city as you learn the true meaning of broke, the most difficult decision you will have to make is where to call home for four to eight months.

There are, of course, the romantic options of Paris, Barcelona, London or Rome, but I challenge those with some bravery and spirit to venture somewhere different.

Living in the Czech Republic, a nation that has only been sovereign for  25 years, was the best decision I have ever made in my life. The gardens and castles were beautiful, as were the orange roofs and colored walls, but none of these things  shaped my experience. As with most things in life there is always more than meets the eye.

I sat on the tram on the way to Old Town Square on a warm fall evening when a fight erupted between two middle aged men, one Russian and the other Czech. At the end the Russian stormed off and the Czech man stood there with tears in his eyes. The Russian man had spoken to the Czech in Russian assuming he would understand and was both surprised and mocking when he found out that this was not the case. The Czech man was in disbelief.

The people of Prague are still angry. The people of Central Europe are too. They have only had a couple of decades to form an identity after centuries of imperial dominance from both the west and the east. They are still growing and learning who they are, which is exactly what I was doing too.

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My time in Prague was beautiful because of the awareness and vitality the city brought to my life. I was made uncomfortable by the angry comments and shifty glances.

Some people did not want me there at all. But over the course of the semester I grew to love the city and its people as I learned that life was not all privilege and joy. A semester abroad in a land that seeks such growth allows for growth in oneself.

So I would advise that you travel somewhere that scares you. Travel to a place that struggles and where you might not be welcomed simply because you are a tourist ready to spend money.

Surely there was a tourist economy in Prague and a wealthy class too, but that was just the surface. As opposed to other cities I traveled to in Western Europe, it did not take long in Prague to figure this out. Travel somewhere you can grow with the people and the rest of the world.

There is much ugliness in this world, but most often it is the successful worlds of affluence, arrogance and indignation. On the other hand there is beauty in the struggle and I challenge those who go abroad to seek those lands where the beauty does not quite instantly meet the eye.

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