The Beginning

As finals come to an end and summer begins, my mind is consumed with my recent acceptance letter to attend the University of Granda in Spain. Since I am education major with a concentration in middle school, I must endorse in two areas. I have decided to endorse in Math and Spanish and have to take 21 hours of each, going to Spain will help me get these 21 hours out of the way fast. When I got my acceptance letter, I was so excited and remember my face lighting up over the Easter break surrounded by my loving family. I have read a few of my friends blogs before and pretty new at this. I figured the purpose of this blog is to keep family and friends updated on my travels for this summer. I feel like every day I find myself thinking of how my life over there will be. I have only been out of the country once, but never have lived with a host family and immersed myself into another country's culture. It should be an interesting, but so life changing!

After I got my acceptance letter, I received the information to access my account to finish the final paper work and learn how life will be like and what to pack for my 5 weeks over in Spain. As I read the list of what I must pack... I start to really worry. My mouth about dropped when the list said to only bring 2-3 pairs of shoes. If you know me, you know that my closet is filled with more shoes than anything else. I cannot walk into a shoe store without buying a new pair. Another problem I have noticed is that certain ways of dressing in a foreign country might offend the natives. My usual daily attire consists of Nike shorts, big t-shirt, and chacos. Now I have to dress cute and none of usual attire each day? Oh boy! The information that I read said to pack a couple of days before I leave then take everything I have packed and walk around the block and see if I am able to carry everything around by myself...This cannot be good, because I am a St. John and my mom has never taught me how to pack light. Over spring break, I almost reached the 50 pound limit and was gone for a week and barely wore any of the clothes. Now I am expected to pack for 5 weeks and be able to carry that in one load around by myself. Yikes! I guess I am going to have to learn how to pack from my dad for this trip since me and my mom can never pack light.

While I worry about the packing issues, I can't help but be so excited and so nervous at the same time. I have heard so many things about Spain from friends that have visited and from the study abroad advisor that has helped me greatly in the process. I get to live with a family and will have a roommate in the house that I stay in. This should be such an experience that I know I will never forget. I get to take excursions to Madrid, Toledo, Sevilla, and Nerja. I cannot wait to see these cities and explore and learn about the history and experience their way of life. The city I am living in, Granda, is about 30 minutes from the Mediterranean Coast, but I hear its going to be VERY hot when I am there. I have also read that air conditioning is not so much as a necessity as it is here in the United States. If you know me, you know I keep my apartment thermostat on 68-70 degrees cool and my fan on full blast... I know once I get over there I am going to have to invest in probably 2 fans to keep me cool at night.

Another change I am going to experience is the food. If your ever around me when I order something in a restaurant, you know I am a plain jane kind of girl who mainly orders chicken tenders or if I go somewhere nice with my family, I always end up getting a steak. One of my friends has already told me that whatever kind of food my family or the waiter puts in front of me, I just have to eat it. I hope maybe if I start trying new things over there, I can come back to the United States and eat more than I do now. The last thing I want to do is insult a stranger who doesn't know that I am a picky eater, so I guess I am going to have to just not ask what kind of food it is and just eat. I am sure if its something that tastes funny or has a weird texture I am going to need a nice big bottle of water there for me to get all the food down. I am just going to have to face my fears...


I will be facing so many different fears while I am there but I know it will be the best experience for 5 weeks in the summer. I would not be here if it wasn't for my wonderful family, supporting me and paying for me to get experience something so great like this. I am so blessed and could never thank them enough for letting me go to Spain. I know they will be worried about me, but knowing me I will skype them everyday to tell them all about it! Anything that happens with my school work, here in Starkville, my parents are the first ones to receive that exciting text message that I did well on a test or something else happened. My family and friends mean so much to me that I am going to miss them so much while in Spain and hopefully I won't get homesick but I will have my family and new friends there to help me along the way.

I will be posting more as time goes by and getting closer to the end of June when I leave. Here are some pictures of what I will be experiencing in the next weeks of preparing myself, the special people I am leaving behind, and places I will eventually be going to...

Granada

Toledo

Sevilla

Nerja

Madrid