Planning Extracurricular Activities for Your Study Abroad Trip

When you budget for a study abroad experience, you get more than just the opportunity to engage with a culture you have never experienced directly. You also gain the opportunity to study literature in its original context, to see the places and feel the historic impact of both the stories and the events they portray. If you are a fiction writer looking for experience abroad that will help you connect more deeply to the places you have lived and the stories that come from them, then you need the experience that comes from knowing the place you will go, not just the course material.

One of the best ways to make sure you have a full experience is to fill your weekends and evening off times with sights and activities that will help to ground you in the location you are visiting. For those of you coming with us to Prague, that means finding time to experience a little bit of everything:

• Cultural events like opera and other performance arts
• Historic sites including medieval constructions and famous sites from events of the 20th century
• Local living and lifestyle in the markets, pubs, and other locations around the city
• Rural life by visiting the countryside

If you have the proper visa clearance set up in advance, it would even be possible to connect to sites in other European countries. Unfortunately, due to the current diplomatic situation, visa-free travel for Americans has been revoked throughout the European Union.