TaylorChoyce.com

Growing up in a small mountain town in the north Cascade Mountains, experiencing other cultures was never something people in my town believed was valuable. Besides the select few graduating high school students that went away to college, most people in my town stayed there. It wasn’t until my second year of college that I decided to become a traveler. Out of sheer curiosity I enrolled in Chinese language classes, where I excelled. My professor encouraged me to study abroad, but I wasn’t prepared to take the cultural leap to the Far East. Europe seemed more appropriate for a first-time traveler, so I studied abroad in Vienna, Austria. I lived with a

host-family in the city, and took 24 credits while there. I studied European history, Baroque music and art, European politics, and human rights. I was fortunate to attend meetings at the European Union, and The United Nations. While I was living in Vienna, the US sent to war in the middle east, and I was fortunate enough to be able to view the whole situation from another cultures eyes. This was very interesting.

Since living in Austria, I have traveled to many places on my own. They include: Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy, San Marino, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Denmark, and China. Also, throughout my college career I have taken a year of Spanish, a year of Chinese, a year of Italian, and a year of German.