Dear blog readers,

            Welcome to my life. I am Natasha Ghiloni and I am 19 years old. In a few weeks I will be moving to Prague to study at the University of Economics for my third year as an International Business student.

 So, how does this make me feel? I have no idea. Currently I am completely unprepared both physically and mentally for this trip and don’t really know what I’m meant to be doing at all. At the moment I am pretty calm and nonchalant about the whole thing – but this is purely because it has not sunk in yet. Currently my brain seems to refuse to register the fact that in a few weeks time I will be living and studying in a country I have never even been to before and that is really about time I got my finger out and started getting ready…

 When I tell people that I am going to study in Prague for a year they react in one of two ways: they either tell me how excited I should be and what a great time I’m going to have or they ask me how scared I am about living on my own in a country where I don’t know anyone and don’t speak the local language and then proceed to list all of the terrible things that could happen to me (the latter was my mum’s reaction).

 I agree with both. I cannot wait to get out of Scotland and experience studying in a completely different environment and have no doubt that it will be one of the best experiences of my life.

However I do have my worries. Not about going by myself or not speaking the language. I’m sure I’ll get by. I worry more about my social skills. I’m really shy and don’t make new friends easily. It takes me a long time (or a lot of alcohol) to become comfortable around new people. I’m worried that although I will meet lots of people and make new acquaintances my shyness will hold me back from making any actual friends and therefore make the experience a lonely one.

 However, his is not the attitude I am going to leave with. This experience is what I make it – and I intend to make it bloody good! In a new country, around new people I don’t have to have all the insecurities I have here – I can be whoever I want to be. I can take this opportunity to make myself a better person and work on the things that hold me back. I will be forced to get over my fears (and I have a lot of them) and to grow up. At the same time, it is the perfect way to enjoy being young!

 On the academic side, I’m scared. Scared of studying in a new system ; working under new expectations;  studying  in a uni where english isn’t the main language…  but most of all I’m worried about fitting my studying in around all the fun I’ll be having ..