So I´ve been here for about a week, and its been pretty amazing

The first two - three days were tough... getting adjusted to the time difference, food, the city, etc. but now I feel more settled in.

I decided to do a family-stay, and I am so glad I made this choice. The food here is so good! And its one less thing to worry about. Of course there are advantages to being in an apartment with other students, but I definitely don´t regret my decision. I can already see how much more practice I´m going to be getting since I´m staying with a family.

So much has happened this past week alone; it´s hard to know where to begin. The first few days have been a lot of orientations and tours of the school and nearby cities. The school is definitely different from any university from the states. There isn´t much of a campus, just one large building that has everything. Unfortunately, I won´t be taking any classes with Spanish people, its only people from my program. I believe that the Spanish school curriculum is different… they´re going through their week of exams right now, whereas we just started our classes.

The tour of the different cities was a lot of fun. There are so many beautiful beaches and sites around where I live… I can´t wait to go exploring and check them all out. We also went on a tour of Bilbao, which is the main city; about a twenty minute metro ride. It reminds me a lot of Washington D.C; how it’s a metro ride away, and even the buildings and the city-feeling I got from being there.

The city I live in, Algorta, is beautiful... It´s a smaller town and everything is walking distance. The bus and metro are pretty much the only means of transportation for me... I use a bus to get to school everyday.
The beach is about a ten minute walk away from my house, and it is so beautiful!

This past weekend, I went to San Sebastian, which is about an hour away from Algorta. It was their patron’s day festival, so I went to check that out... and it was amazing. The city is beautiful, and the beach is right along the outskirts of the main town area. The festival was incredible too. The actual festivities started at midnight, and it went on all night.

I can already tell that my semester here is going to be amazing.

Algorta

Algorta

Bilbao

San Sebastian

Pre-Departure Woes

So I leave in approximately three days.
During these past two weeks leading up to Saturday, I've had waves of excitement, followed by panic, followed by excitement again.

I finished packing yesterday, after spending hours figuring out what to bring and what to leave behind in my closet... and for those who know about me and my closet know that, that was not an easy task.
I tried weighing myself holding the luggage and then myself without holding my bags to figure out how much each of them weighed. Each bag has a limit of 50 pounds; if I go over, I have to pay a fee and if I go over a certain limit, they could even reject my bag altogether.
Not a good situation at all.

Besides packing, I've been making a bunch of calls to a bunch of people: credit card people, the bank, at&t, the airline, etc... I've probably been put on hold for a total of about an hour.
It feels good to have everything done though.

Now, it's just waiting for Saturday to come. I try to imagine what it'll be like when I get there. But before I can imagine myself in Spain, I picture myself being lost and confused at the airport, struggling with my bags.
Once I manage to get myself out of the airport, I find myself at the doorsteps of my family; complete strangers. I am so nervous about meeting them, living them, attempting to communicate with them.
Am I going to be with a big family? with five kids, dog and parents? Or will I be with senora, a single woman?

I can't wait to be settled in, and be familiar with the town, and the school. I'm really looking forward to the classes, and meeting everyone in my program. I'm also excited about the travel opportunities. There are so many places I want to go: London, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, everywhere!
I want to go to all the touristy places, all the landmarks, but at the same time, I want to go to the small towns and soak in the culture and atmosphere. So many things to do... I know one semester seems like a long time, but I can see myself wanting to stay longer, or regretting not traveling enough when I'm there.

I hope there are no regrets. I hope that I take advantage of all the opportunities, and challenge myself. All these goals, hopes, aspirations seem cliche and corny; but now that I face my departure date so soon, they seem appropriate and fitting.

So here I go, finally going to Spain and fulfilling my dream. Until next time,

¡Hasta Luego!

A man practices the art of adventure when he breaks the chain of routine and renews his life through reading new books, traveling to new places, making new friends, taking up new hobbies and adopting new viewpoints - Wilfred Peterson