Adventure Ingenue in Eastern Europe

Catapult Chicago, the non-profit tech hub that I run, has participated in the World Chicago program for the last two years. World Chicago is a state department funded program that places international fellows from all over the globe in Chicago to learn and expand their horizons in their prospective industries. I have hosted two fellows from Eastern Europe, one from Bosnia and the other from Macedonia, where the tech ecosystem is exploding. This year I was honored to have been chosen to be a part of the reciprocal delegation. What's more, I found out another traveler was a peer that I've known for a few years, Trisha Degg with ITA. Trisha and I decided to capitalize on the opportunity and fly in a bit early to travel together before meeting the rest of the group. We decided to visit Vienna and Budapest before arriving in Zagreb. I haven't quite wrapped my head around what an amazing opportunity this is. Taking this journey we become professional state department fellows for life. We are featured speakers at the Voogle conference in Varazdin, and LEAP Summit in Zagreb. We have meetings scheduled with the embassies and chambers of commerce. It's overwhelming and ego-boosting and honestly very difficult not to have full blown imposter syndrome. It will be an incredible trip and and a once in a lifetime adventure. Traveling abroad is a passion of mine, and it's nice to be on a new adventure, but it's also odd for me to be traveling abroad for professional purposes. I'm also realizing the more roots you put down, the harder it is to leave. Since my last international trip, I've gotten married and bought a house (which is currently being renovated). As exciting as this journey is, I'd be lying if I said it was easy to leave my hubs and our project for 15 days. I'll miss my usual travel partner while I'm away. Regardless it will be one for the books and I'm sure we'll have plenty of stories to share over the next two weeks!

Planned Dates

2019-03-22 to 2019-04-05

Countries

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