The Countdown Begins

One month. I cannot believe it. One month from today, I will be on my way to Spain. It is something I have been told for about 5 months now, but it is still quite a shock.

I have been talking to my host family over e-mail. There is my host mom, Cristina, my two host sisters, Paula and Andrea, and there is another foreign exchange student from Finland, Nora, who I have been talking to on Facebook. I have two brothers, so a house full of women will be interesting.

Another student from the CIEE Spain group made a Facebook group, which is reassuring to me to know there are other people in the same boat as me. We can get to know each other and prepare for the trip together. One of the best ways for me to prepare is to look at other people’s blogs. Although we are not all the same, they are helpful to understand how I might feel in a month.

At this point, it is a mix of emotions right now because I am ecstatic for the opportunity ahead, but I am also sad to leave everyone and everything I know. I think the one thing I realize is that there is always going to be a trade off, so I can think about it in two ways:

1. I can be disappointed about everything I am missing back home

or

2. I can be excited for the experience, but come on, I am talking about SPAIN.