Preface

My last night in the United States. The suitcases are filled, all 3-oz liquid bottles are in a ziploc baggie, and my passport--with visa affixed--is waiting patiently to be stamped. Tomorrow at 7:43AM, I will leave from SFO and land in Washington DC for a little afternoon tryst before hopping aboard another plane for Madrid-Barajas Airport, scheduled to land almost a full day later at 7:35AM on Tuesday, local time. I have literally been waiting for this day for years, and it all feels so surreal now that it's actually arrived. Two of my cousins studied abroad, one in Rome and another in Dublin, and it was hearing about their experiences back when I was a high school freshman that initially inspired me to do the same. I'm definitely nervous and even a little afraid, but my eagerness greatly overshadows any trepidation.

Quick overview: I will be living in Madrid, Spain, for the next year (with tentative plans to return home in August 2012). I'll be studying a variety of classes in la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, one of the oldest colleges in the world with an overwhelming student body of 100,000 pupils. Upon arrival, I'll move into a dorm room for the first 10 days, in which time I am responsible for going out and finding my own apartment for the remainder of the year. The group I am going with are all from the CSU system, but I am the only one from Cal Poly and the others are strangers to me thus far. Some of my classes will be with them and other international students, some will be normal university classes with regular madrileño students. All classes will be in Spanish.

I have many goals for the year, such as perfecting my Spanish. I may never speak like a native, but I better get pretty damn good.

Also, being open to anything and everything. I'm really not a person to turn down an experience, whether it be meeting new people, going out to a new place, or (especially) trying new food. I am aware of how lucky I am to have this opportunity, and I plan to take full advantage of it with no second thoughts or regrets. No one gets anywhere exciting by saying no.

I imagine that yes is the only living thing -ee cummings 

I hope to have many more posts following this one! I will be disappointed if I don't. Hopefully they are beneficial and enlightening to others as well as to me, or at the very least mildly entertaining.

¡Buenas noches!