Hey everyone! Thanks for tuning in. At the moment I am waiting at the airport waiting for my flight to leave. It is pretty exciting and scary at the same time. (I ran into a big glass window while trying to text, so tip: Don’t do that) This first blog I hope to detail out what I am expecting and why I would be going abroad.

As you all know, I will be heading to Estonia in the capital city of Tallinn. There I will be interning with EducationUSA at Tallinn University of Technology doing administrative work with the department. EducationUSA is part of the Department of State and the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs which hopes to promote US culture and promote US Higher Ed system. With the internship, I will be presenting on US culture and advocating on the higher education system we have in the US. This will be a big step in my career field of international study, student affairs administration and with hope of being more cultural competent. As an internship, I will be working close to full time according to the laws and policies in Estonia while being an exchange student at TUT.

I am passionate about learning and understanding other cultures and the best way I believe to experience it is to be a local. By being a local and not a tourist, I am able to learn the country’s language more in dept, understand customs and beliefs, and take things nice and slow.

In Estonia, they speak Russian and Estonian and its fairly hard! I tried to learn some phrases these past couple of weeks but its going to take some time. I think that is enough for now. I will update in about a week.

Any who here is a picture of what Estonia will look like. (Its a magical kingdom, huzzah!)