Home

Pros:

free bed

comfortable bed

closet

homemade meals

family time

friend reunions

the holidays in NY!

american coffee

 

Cons:

american coffee

Long Island accents

driving everywhere

phone works EVERYWHERE

lack of internationals

no cobblestone streets to wander

same thing, different day

So I’m home, I’ve been home for about a week. As I sit in my bed and watch reruns of the “Fresh Prince” I cannot believe that only a week ago I was sitting in a comedy club in Dublin with people from all over drinking an Irish guinness. It amazes me everytime I come home how things and people don’t change, they will always be here. Certainly people get older, move, change, but so have I and I guess after three and half months of change everyday and learning a new place, these small details seem insignificant to the larger picture. This isn’t to say home isn’t interesting or I don’t love the people in my life here, it just reminds me why I travel. It also reminds me that the same is true for other places, like Prague. Prague will always be there, some of my friends might have moved by the time I go back, or there might be a new pub next door, but places are always there for you to return to, so why not move around? Move around and experience new places.
In a little less than a month I will be headed to Malaysia for ten months. I was initially very nervous and a little hesitant about committing so much time to living in Asia, to be honest, all I wanted was to go back to Prague to live there forever and ever. Now, I could not be more convinced that I made the best decision. Prague will always be there for me, it will always be magical, but I feel that it is time to move on and explore a new continent for awhile. I travel to learn more about myself, the world around me, but mostly people. I want to understand how people live and thrive in different environments and cultural situations. My goal is to be an English teacher in Northeast America one day. Part of teaching English is to teach where literature comes from, what influences, what perspective it comes from. There is no way I could accurately and successfully teach students about literature from somewhere other than New York if I don’t experience those places and people myself, which is part of the reason travel is such an important part of my life. To be the best teacher I can be one day I need to live and breathe other cultures and I need to remember that those places that are my favorite will always be there, but to further my learning I need to move on, try something new, challenge myself and I could not be more excited to be moving to Malaysia in less than month!

My name is Kelly and I am a recent graduate of SUNY New Paltz. I have my bachelors in Secondary Education and English and during my time as an undergrad I spent a semester studying abroad in Prague, Czech Republic. I enjoyed living in Prague so I have decided to come back for a little while. I will be living in Prague for the next 3 and half months during which I will be taking a TEFL course (teaching english as a foreign language) to prepare myself for my next adventure. Upon graduating New Paltz I received a Fulbright scholarship to teach in Malaysia for 2015. When I leave Prague in December I will be headed to Malaysia and will be a teaching assistant in an English class. I have been traveling to other countries since I was 15 years old and I guess you could say I've been bit hard by the travel bug. =)

Leave a Reply

Next ArticleDon't forget to wear your Orange & Blue TODAY!