Ski season is just around the corner, and the Ikon Pass is making it even easier to ski across the country by adding a new California mountain to the mix.
27.08.2024 - 16:41 / insider.com / In Europe
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Liza Jean Miezejeski, a content creator and founder of Skola, a startup to help students navigate moving to Europe to attend university. It has been edited for length and clarity.
In high school, when it was time to start planning for the future, all I felt was fear — the fear of graduating from collegewith debt.
It was 2015, and I was a sophomore. One day, on a drive through our Connecticut town with my mom, we heard on the radio that Americans were moving to Germany for free education.
It sounded perfect. "You should do this," my mom agreed.
So, we started researching colleges in Europe. The Anglo-American University in Prague was my top choice because of its affordability and its curriculum. A high school diploma wasn't required to apply, so I applied early and got in.
I only knew one other student from my high school who moved abroad for their studies. The rest of my schoolmates went to college in Boston, New York, or other parts of New England.
I was excited, but I didn't fully understand what I was getting myself into until I was in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
I don't think I knew what culture shock meant until I moved to Prague. In my hometown, it's normal to say "hi" to everyone you pass.
But Czechs looked at me weirdly when I did the same in Prague. It took me a while to realize it was a cultural difference, but I eventually got used to it.
Before moving to Europe, I didn't realize how much of my thinking about the world was from a US-centric perspective. In Europe, the students I studied with were from all over the world. I learned about their cultures, ways of life, and languages.
Related stories
As cheesy as it sounds, the learning did not stop there. As an international student, getting on public transportation, grabbing a coffee, and everything I did for the first time was a learning experience. It was exciting, and as a result, made everything I did interesting.
And even though the cheaper tuition was my main reason for moving to Europe, the opportunity to travel and see the world was also a big pro.
I had originally intended to complete the three-year college program in Prague and then return to the US. I did not even consider the possibility that people could leave the US permanently.
When I spent a semester abroad in Malaysia in 2019, a friend asked if I intended to return to the US.
"No," I replied almost immediately, realizing I had made the decision unconsciously. My entire adult life and everything I knew were now in Europe. If I returned to the US, I would experience culture shock and have to "relearn" being an adult, I thought.
After I completed my bachelor's degree in Humanities, Society, and Culture in
Ski season is just around the corner, and the Ikon Pass is making it even easier to ski across the country by adding a new California mountain to the mix.
Over the last few years, Burning Man has become known as a haven for Silicon Valley tech bros and Instagram influencers who cough up thousands of dollars to party in "Mad Max" desert cosplay.
Clarksville, a historic district of Austin, Texas, has lately emerged as a stylish dining and shopping enclave. Among the area’s most compelling new businesses is La Embajada, a design shop housed in a 1923 Craftsman bungalow. Combining the hospitality and interiors expertise of its founder, Raul Cabra — who has designed tableware for some of Mexico City’s most celebrated restaurants, including Rosetta and Pujol — La Embajada presents a refined, regionally diverse selection of Mexico’s artisanal offerings. A series of small rooms display vintage and contemporary furniture, from stately midcentury armchairs and 1970s glass sconces to a minimalist agave fiber rug by the Oaxaca-based textile artist Trine Ellitsgaard. The house is also an actual residence. Cabra often stays in the bedroom up the creaky stairs, and he’s recently made it available for short-term stays (bookings include a daily basket of baked goods from Austin’s Swedish Hill). Guests can purchase the room’s handmade décor, such as a pair of sleek bedside lamps in milky white onyx, a 1960s La Malinche dresser and a bedspread from a Michoacan manufacturer that once supplied Herman Miller. Downstairs, glassware, candles and gifts fill a section modeled after a typical general store in a small Mexican town. But La Embajada’s heart is its inviting kitchen, where visiting chefs cook elaborate meals and staff prepare ice cream and coffee. In another twist, every bespoke detail — including a hammered copper sink, caramel-colored tiles and waxed pine cabinets — can be custom-ordered for one’s own home.
Nothing quite says late summer or early fall like a delicious hand-crafted doughnut straight out of the fryer.
Disney Cruise Line is sharing more details about its newest ship, Disney Destiny, including its inaugural sailing date and some itinerary details.
I'd never cruised before — but when 12 of my friends from high school hatched a plan to celebrate our 60th birthdays on a four-night Royal Caribbean cruise, I immediately said yes.
Someone once told me every life boils down to five major decisions —five moments when the direction we step dictates the path we'll travel until the next juncture. If it's true, I made one of those decisions in 2015 in the western reaches of Washington State. I was 33 years old and had just summitted Mount Rainier, the first glaciated peak I'd ever climbed and the most adventurous thing I'd ever done.
“I tell my friends that I'm now midcentury modern,” the New York–based fashion designer Phillip Lim quips about turning 50. “And like the furniture, hopefully better with age.” Joking aside, Lim, who launched his 3.1 Phillip Lim label in 2005 and now sells his signature clean-lined clothing in shops around the world, saw the landmark birthday as a chance to take stock. “I heard somewhere that, with 50, you get a second dawn. I took that to heart.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he's suspending his independent presidential bid and is instead endorsing Donald Trump in November’s race for the White House.
United Airlines wants to help you cheer on your favorite team — in person.
I've been invited to more bachelorette parties than I can count.
With rising temperatures in southern Europe, more and more tourists are flocking to cooler destinations in the north.