Wanderlust

This morning I am on my way to the countries of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia and I really could not be happier!  Traveling is my passion.  When I was a little girl, all I dreamed about was traveling the world.  I wanted to see all of the places I read about in history books, I wanted to immerse myself in different cultures, and I wanted to wander the streets of cities that existed hundreds and hundreds of years ago.  I wanted to see, do, and experience everything.  When I graduated from high school I vowed to myself that I would do whatever I had to so that I could travel.  When I got to college, I discovered that my school offered many study abroad programs and I decided to go my senior year.  Luckily I had a scholarship to pay for school so I saved almost every penny that I made from my various jobs and was able to travel to France my last semester in college (I graduated two days after I got home).  I sacrificed a lot to be able to go on this trip but it literally changed my life.  I learned more about art, literature, architecture, and history than I did in four years of college.  I actually got to speak French after studying it for six years.  I got to see the musical Les Miserables in London (a dream come true) and thus began a love of the theatre which continues to this day.  I got to swim in the Mediterranean Sea and gamble in the casinos of Monte Carlo.  I got lost wandering the streets of Paris and, in the process, I found myself!  Studying abroad only increased my desire to travel so, with a few exceptions, I have gone overseas every summer since and have had some incredible experiences.  I hope to create more wonderful memories wandering the medieval cobblestone streets of Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn and I want to get lost in the imperial Russia of the czars.