This feels like summer camp

It's just like starting freshman year of college all over again. You meet a lot of people in a really short time, hang out with whoever you had dinner with the first night, and the whole thing is really surreal, as if I'm not really living here yet.

Today we moved into our dorms and this place is BEAUTIFUL. The walls are bright blue and the bed sheets are bright orange! We have a kitchen and a bathroom in our room and a swimming pool on the roof. My roommate, Brooke, is really awesome. We actually have a lot in common which is great.

On our flight over from Chicago, Steph and I sat next to a man named Andy who is from Brighton, England. He was so entertaining and a really nice guy- we had a great talk about architecture and ruins and about how wars destroy physical evidence of history while simultaneously creating history. He also thought it was great that it was our first transatlantic flight, and made sure that we got everything we needed, including, according to him, two mini bottles of wine and a bloody mary with dinner each. I never want to fly Northwest again! And I am happy that we ended up next to Andy- I love talking with people on airplanes.

Unfortunately I didn't sleep too much on the plane- each seat had its own tv screen and there were so many movies and tv shows to watch...I only watched one movie but I feel like I should have slept instead. Waiting in Heathrow was uneventful for our flight, and both Steph and I slept the entire way to Barcelona. That feeling of landing in Spain was incredible.

For the past two days I have been living in a hotel with the rest of the CEA study abroad kids. It was so difficult to stay awake- I have never experienced jet lag before and it was intense- I am still recovering a little bit. Our first night they had a big welcome dinner for us, and then let us loose. It wasn't a very eventful night but we had a good time. Yesterday was full of orientation sessions and napping, then a brief bus tour of the city. I can't wait to go exploring on my own without a tour guide and 150 other people. Last night a group of us went down to Las Ramblas, the main drag if you will, the touristy section of Barcelona. We had dinner outside and halfway through our meal a man from Norway sat down with us and wanted to talk about politics and psychiatry. He was pretty cool and ended up buying our meal for us, and wouldn't say no no matter how much we protested. What a great first meal to have in the city!

Of course, after that we went out to a club and stayed out til 6:30 am and it was wild! I got to practice my Spanish a lot. And today we moved in and I am about to head down to the beach to play some ultimate!

From the airport

31.August.2008

6:35 pm

So I’m at the airport. Bags are checked, I have eaten entirely too much popcorn (thanks Eve!), and I am about 45 minutes from boarding the plane. It still hasn’t entirely hit me that I’m leaving yet. Saying goodbye to people was weird, I only cried twice, and one of them was because I have no idea when I will be seeing Lauren again. That’s the only downside of having friends who love to travel- you never know when or where you will run into them. Though at the same time, I wouldn’t consider that a bad thing either. I love all of you so much and I’m glad I got to see so many people before I left!

This is so wild. I only started to get a little bit nervous on the drive here. I WILL BE IN BARCELONA IN 14 HOURS. At this time tomorrow I will most likely be in some club dancing and going crazy. It will be perfect- it’s 7 hours ahead in Barcelona, so it’s 1:40 am there. I haven’t really stopped to think about this- it isn’t real yet. I didn’t even look back, but I can’t really look forward either, or at least not in anything but abstract terms. I can’t believe I’m really doing this! I have been waiting 11 years to go to Spain, ever since the first time I went to Spanish camp. And now I am half a day away from realizing that dream. Whenever I think about it I get that tight, nervous feeling right in the middle of my left ribs that I get whenever I’m terrified, excited, nervous, or really passionate about something. I can’t breathe! I am way too excited. I’m happy I have Steph here with me. I was definitely prepared to do this on my own; I mean, that’s how I signed up for the trip. But it was really nice having her family drive me to the airport; they were so sweet and all hugged me goodbye. And about half an hour ago, when we both realized we had no way of telling what time it was, where I probably would have been a bit freaked out by myself we just laughed instead. It’s so crazy not to have a phone. I love it- turning it off and hiding it in my apartment was such a great feeling.

Eeeee they are boarding!!!! Gotta go! More from Spain!!!!!!

Packing up my life

So I am supposed to be finished packing by now, but instead I am creating blogs and pretty much doing everything but packing. I don't leave until the 31st, but I'm driving home tomorrow with all of my stuff to spend some time with my family. I'm kind of scared to see my room completely empty...as anyone who has seen the way I live knows, it is strange enough to be able to see the floor at all! This whole thing is both becoming more real and less real the closer it gets to the departure date. I have been making all of these plans to decide which weekends I am visiting which countries, and I can't believe that in 10 days I will be at the Barcelona airport. I can't wait! But for now, my mounting pile of dishes calls.