My three weeks in Prague during AIPES 2008 were absolutely incredible. I met amazing people from all over the globe and I hoped that I would someday run into my fellow AIPES alumni wherever my travels would take me.

This past August, I went to Kiev, Ukraine, for a Russian language immersion program.

During my first night out in the city, the fellow Americans with me decided to go to the Irish pub in the center of Kiev. As the band was taking a break, I looked up from my table and saw somebody eyeing me from across the room.

I looked a little closer and could not believe my eyes. I realized who it was…Mykhaylo Zakryzhevskyy, one of the Ukrainians I studied with at AIPES!

I darted my way through the tables and chairs to say hello to Mykhaylo, who was grinning from ear to ear. Neither of us could believe it.

When I asked what he was doing back home in Ukraine, let alone the same bar as me in a city with more than three million people, he said “Jameson, you’re not going to believe this, but I’m here for a TFAS – Ukrainian Alumni get-together!”

He led me back to his table, and I met a handful of other Ukrainians that I became friends with while I was in Prague the previous summer. After catching up on each other’s lives, I assured them that whenever they come to Washington, D.C., they have a free place to stay.

Because of my time at AIPES, I have discovered that it truly is a TFAS world!

Do you have a story similar to Jameson’s? Share it with alumni@tfas.org – the chosen story will appear in next month’s newsletter and the alumnus will receive a TFAS t-shirt!