Pre-departure Meet and Greet

So what's the scoop with meeting people before the program? If you can, do it and heres why! 

So peeps, I was wondering the same thing. It was great that the programs introductory course requests that you drop a pin of where your school will be on a public map for the rest of the CIEE group. It made sense that they also requested we introduce ourselves on the group Facebook so that we could get to know the rest of the group. All great but it can also be overwhelming. Trying to respond to everyone's introduction post so that you aren't feeling completely out of the loop is a lot, and if you're working full time in front of a computer screen like me, the last thing you want is more screen time. It can be easy to say "ain't no nobody got time for that" and choose not to dive in but DONT BE DISCOURAGED! All it takes is starting with your introduction and then perhaps choose one day out of the week that you want to dedicate to responding to people for an hour or two. 
 

The group Facebook was also an opportunity for teachers to setup meet and greet opportunities. I was lucky enough to have someone In L.A. organize our meet and greet. It was so much fun getting to know the other teachers before heading to Spain. To compare notes on which orientation dates we had, where we want to live, common interest and hopefully catch mutual vibes and scope out some possible rommmates. It made me feel much more connected to the program and those in it. Although I know it was a small group of us compared to whole, if was still nice to put some faces to those introductions! Everyone was super friendly and we had a lot of fun. It made the extra screen time after a long days work that much more worth it. So, all that to say, JUMP IN, take it one step at a time and have fun! The more you get involved the more groups you'll sign up for and hopefully have a blast with all your new friends in Spain! That's my plan! 

-The Social Swan