One of the best ways to jump into a new culture is through the local food. The sheer act of sharing food experiences also gives you instant conversation starter material with locals. Central Asian cuisine, having developed largely from nomadic cultures, is often heavy on grains, pasta, dairy, and meat. We are sure that you […]

SRAS is not in the business of selling plane tickets, with the exception of group educational tours and domestic flights not available for purchase outside of our program host countries. We do, however, continuously monitor flight pricing and travel logistics routings for our study destinations and we travel a lot ourselves. As such, we are […]

Vilnius is a fairly cheap 4-hour bus ride from Riga. Making that trip give you the opportunity to see another side of the rich cultural heritage of the Baltics. With affordable housing options like the Downtown Forest Hostel, you can easily immerse yourself in Vilnius’s historic Old Town. Planning your trip around the last Sunday […]

What’s it really like to live in Yerevan, Armenia for a semester? Staying long-term in a city is much different from just vacationing there. You’ll need to navigate more of the practical, everyday services of the city and budget to include more miscellaneous and long-term expenses. Thus, this guide covers everything from haircuts to pharmacies […]

My Central Asian Studies Program with SRAS in Bishkek included a fantastic 9-day trip to the major Silk Road cities of Uzbekistan—Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand—which was book-ended by visits to Tashkent. At the end of my program, I made the trip to the capital of Uzbekistan again, this time independently. I stayed there for three […]

In my six years as a competitive ballroom dancer in the United States, I’ve been struck by the fact that most of my coaches, teachers, and judges are from former Soviet states. Even Ukrainian President Zelensky had a star turn as a dancer when he won a Dancing with the Stars competition in 2006. During […]