Hola!
It's been a while since I posted, well maybe not that long but it feels like a while since I posted. I finally picked up my visa!!!! This recent trip to Chicago was much much MUCH less stressful. We did not have an appointment time we had to get to, we just had to pick up the visa anytime before my flight to Spain. Another thing that surprised me was my visa only took 2 weeks to process. These people made the visa processing sound like it would take ages to do.
Okay, not really necessary to freak out people who are extremely stressed out from applying for the visa. But thankfully mine was done it time, so it's weird to think that everything is so far so good. Through this process, I have had several bumps along the road including almost not getting my preliminary application in on time, not keeping things organized and losing/misplacing some very vital documents. If I could give one little tip if you're planning on applying for any visa/important thing in your life, KEEP IT ORGANIZED! Either find a folder or an accordian binder or something that you will be able to easily find something when you need it. My only reget in this whole process is not keeping things organized better.
Anyways....
I have 24 days left before I leave and these next few weeks are pretty booked up. I only have 7 days of work left! It's going to be a nice break to not have to go to work. Some of the times I didn't want to go I would remember what the pay off would be when I got to Spain. Can you say shopping?!
I think I've mentioned this in previous posts but I get one suit case that can weigh 44 pounds, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I obviously can't bring my whole closet because I will be buying new clothes and wont have enough room to bring all my new things back. I think I have found a solution though. I'm going to only pack my suit case 2/3 full (!) I know it sounds crazy to do,but I thought it would be a better idea for a couple of reasons.
1.) I will obvioulsy have more room when I come back to stuff all my new things inside.
2.) After flying from New York to Switzlerland to Madrid to Santiago de Compostela with little to no sleep, I won't really be too happy to lug around 44 pounds of stuff. And I'm also bringing a backpack as my carry-on. So add another 20 pounds and i'll be one happpy flyer getting off that plane.
I'm having my going away party next Saturday to say one final goodbye to a lot of the people I don't see often like my aunts and uncles. I'm looking forward to it because I'll get to see some of my old friends from my days back at YMCA day camp. It's really weird how things can change so quickly.
My school in De Pere starts on September 2nd and school in Spain starts I think the 16th of September? I really have no idea but when I get there, I'll still be on summer vaacation :) All my friends are complaining about school starting again and I still feel like I have a ton of summer left. I'm quite thankful that I'm arriving in Spain on September 2nd so I will have about 2 weeks to get used to my surroundings and the people who I will be socializing with for the next 10 months of my life. Lorenzo told me that on his exchange to France, he started to think in french within 10 days. I am hoping and praying that will be the same amount of time for me to start recgonizing what people are saying to me and for me to get in the habbit of thinking in another language other than my own.
Sometimes I freak out because Lorenzo speaks such good English and whenever we speak on Skype and Facebook I am always tempted to go to English because it's easier. I hate the feeling of wanting to say something simple and not knowing the word or the sentence structure. I feel so weird speaking Spanish because I never know if I'm using the right tense or expression, but once the person I'm speaking to responds it's a sigh of relief to know they understood/kinda understood what I was trying to say. I am so thankful to have the host family that I have.
Keep checking back as my trip gets closer :)
Adios!
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