Oh, the Butterflies!

Something about the Fourth of July weekend had me buzzing with excitement; not about spending the day poolside or watching fireworks barefoot in the front yard. Instead this year I was acutely aware that, though I was celebrating the US and having a great time doing so, I will be off to Spain in just under 2 months. Holy sh*t. I mean, holy moly. 

But while the excitement does give me butterflies comparable only to Christmas Eve when I was 5 years old, it does come with other feelings like the *majorly* stressful ones. 

Today my husband and I went to the small public library one town over to print out all of our Visa Application documents. Sidenote: We’re living with my in-laws for the summer in a small Texas town with a population of - drumroll - 280. Yes, you read that right, two hundred eighty people. . .so by all means take a moment to imagine that tiny public library I just mentioned. Anyways, we went today to print out our visa papers, but quickly realized we didn’t have everything ready. Then came the confusion of all the language of what exactly is required. For example, the consulate website states we need to mail in a photo scan of our ID plus the original.  

Em, what? What does that mean???

So, not only did we waste a trip today going to print out our papers when we didn’t have all of them ready, but we still have so, so many questions to ask before we make sure everything is perfect to send off to the consulate. And, yeah, that’s a lot of stress and pressure. 

But in these moments of intense anxiety I go back to the warm, fuzzy, butterflies I first started this blog post with. I didn’t make you forget those, did I?

This process is stressful so we have to keep the exciting stuff in the forefront of our minds! I like to imagine what my apartment in Madrid will be like. Will my kitchen window look down on a busy street, or maybe even a café where I can people-watch while I have my morning coffee? Will my walk to work be by a park or through a residential area? What interesting topics will my students want to talk about most? 

See, now we’re back to just plain old Christmas Eve butterflies and happiness at the utterly overwhelming and magical potential of the year to come.