I have a door at least!

Well, progress is being made, I now have a door that will lead me to the place I will call home for the next 4 months. I will be living with a women named Marisol and her husband I believe, though I am unsure since my program is still extremely vague as to what my actual living situation will be. I have a roommate who is in the same program as I, I can't wait to meet her! Only 19 days until I leave, I'm still frantically searching for the perfect backpacking backpack, and maybe a lightweight jacket to wear under my perpetual rain jacket. Spain seems to be the only thing that my parents are able to talk about when they mention me to friends and family, right behind my big interview coming up with Florsheim Shoes! It seems that as time passes, we all get older, and as I get older I seem to be able to do cooler and cooler things. I'm quickly scribbling this all down during my 45minutes of internet at Starbucks while visiting my grandparents in Kentucky, so I will leave off here, until next time!

Snowballs and sleighbells and warm woolen mittens...These are NOT a few of my favorite things

According to the weather channel last week in good old St. Paul we received about 18inches of wet, icy, cold snow. One would think that after the countless blizzards and an infinite amount of snowflakes that have fallen upon the Twin Cities St. Paul would have learned what a snow plow was, and how to use it...but I digress. Amidst the "winter wonderland" I was facing last week, I was dreaming about the new wonderland I would like to refer to as "Spain." Now "Spain" is experiencing the weather that frequents the cities during the fall, and I will be able to avoid too many layers of clothing while abroad.

Obviously I have been writing this blog for a little while now, dedicated solely for my adventures, stories and ridiculousness that I will encounter, but this blog has also earned me one more thing: a job. I was chosen to be the official blogger for the IES Madrid program. Not only was I chosen as a written blogger BUT also a photo blogger. Yes, a couple hundred dollars doesn't seem like much, but i figure I'm doing this one for free, and it was money i didn't have before, so I'd like to say I came out ahead. It's a pretty big deal, there were lots of applicants, and for some unknown reason I was chosen out of the crowd; maybe it was my witty banter, that I'm not even sure how many people read, but I can prove my former English teachers that I amounted to something somewhere along the way!

Quick Blurb, Then Back to Finals

My Visa came, according to my sister, which means I no longer run the risk of being an illegal immigrant in Spain, and means that I have to come home after 6months for sure...double edged sword I must say. I have yet to see it so I'll let you know what the cool shiny sticker looks like! Sorry I can't update anything else, too many things to memorize and study. So I'll leave you with some cool unique facts about Spain:

• Spaniards stand close and frequently touch one another on the arm while conversing...guess my personal bubble will be popped
• Accepting a second serving is one of the best ways to show appreciation to the cook...this may be a problem...for my jeans
• Teenagers usually begin dating in groups around age 14 and as couples at age 18...for my high school readers, some motivation...
• Rather than call on a girl at her home, a boy often meets a girl at a prearranged site...avoid the parents? another pointer for the youngsters ;)
  
• It is slightly more than twice the size of Oregon...this one I had to put up for Bex, and her odd obsession with Oregon
• Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain in order to find the New World...that's when he came and found us (pun intended)
• Madrid is Spain’s capital city and it is located directly in the center of the country...bullseye!
• The tooth fairy is not recognized in Spain. Instead, they have a tooth mouse named Ratoncito Perez!...the idea of a mouse scurrying under my pillow at night is very disturbing
  

The Harsh Realities of Life

LIFEGUARD

This has been my job for as long as I can remember...the water, the sun, the sound of kids screaming and splashing...now, after thinking about this for a while, I do realize that it is a fairly common summer j maybe even part-time job during the school year for students, however, I didn't realize that I would have to consider the Real world for a while. As you're reading this, you're probably questioning why I am ranting about jobs and the harsh reality of life after college in a blog about going abroad. The answer to your question is that I have just finished perfecting a cover letter and resume in both English AND Spanish. Would you have guessed that I would have to include a picture of myself, as well as my marital status on a resume in Spain? Apparently it's expected there, despite it's illegality here in the states, but I guess this will just be one of the first of many cultural differences that I will encounter during my adventure abroad. It's funny how some things like the Dean's List and GPA, things that are stressed highly here, don't even exist abroad. They hold no significance and a prospective employer will not understand them or why they have a place on my resume. Now, these letters and resumes weren't just written for the fun of translating untranslatable things, but rather to apply for an internship with a Spanish business while abroad. I figure why not? Yes it may take some time away from weekend trips, but being contracted to work for a Spanish business? Isn't that why I'm majoring in International Business and Spanish Linguistics? I know I could do a fair amount with these degrees, but working abroad would definitely be at the top of my list, up there with interpreting for the UN or going into bilingual marketing. Thus, I am hoping and crossing my fingers (you should too!) that I am able to successfully land a position during the interview process upon my arrival in Spain in January!

Signing My Life Away

Another month, another step, or at least one more step closer to Spain. During this week much has been accomplished: a plane ticket was purchased, and a VISA mailed in. Now, if you have never applied for a VISA, then it probably sounds simple, contact the consulate get a cool shiny sticker in your passport...I'll stop you there, because that is a traveling fairy tale...in order to get a VISA from Spain I had to literally sign my life away as I fedex'd multiple copies of my driver's license, acceptance letter, health insurance, two of the EXACT same application for a visa and countless other pieces of paper that all assure the Spanish government that I will not become a squatter in their country (despite how much I would love to do so). However as a result, I will receive that cool shiny sticker in my passport.

So that was task one of the week, task two was the plane ticket. When I received my packet full of information about going to Spain, I was informed that I have to arrive by 12noon on the 17th of January in the Madrid Barajas Airport. This meant I have to leave on the 16th here in the US, thus time changes had to be considered, and then the decision between a one-way ticket (and accomplishing the squatting desire) or a round-trip ticket (and dreading "d-day" departure day) had to be made. Eventually it was decided, a good deal was to be had, and a one-way ticket was purchased to leave on the 16th of January on a direct flight from Ohare to Barajas.

Everything is beginning to become real, I don't have to register for Spring classes at UST this semester, I won't have Spanish class with the same people as I have the past 3 years, and I won't have to deal with lots and lots of snow (even though I love it...for a little while). Instead I get weekends abroad to places whose pictures I used to just gaze at in National Geographic, I get to live my dream, and for this I thank my parents for everything, absolutely everything.

Starting Now...

As most of you have probably noticed I haven't updated this in a while, and you're probably assuming it is because I forgot, however I really did not. Nothing has been updated, as nothing has changed until recently. As time has passed this summer the idea of me not being here in the Spring still seems distant. I may receive comments from my wonderful roommates that I am a terrible roommate because I am leaving them, or that I am going to miss out on some of the best swim meets of the year in the brand new pool that I am now manager of. Until I actually unpacked my apartment and moved in, it didn't hit me how much I am going to miss everyone and everything, however, I know it will be an experience of a lifetime, and I won't have time to get as emotional as I do when you talk to me now.

Currently I am in the process of applying for my visa, my housing, paying deposits and verifying that my passport is indeed MY passport. It seems that the paperwork never ends, however if you know me at all, I love being organized and doing what seems like busy work to everyone else i.e. writing my name and address approximately 20 times repeatedly on about 20 different forms that are all going to basically the same place. I have been reading handbooks and guidebooks and packing lists and opinions from former students of my IES program in Madrid. Oh, and did I mention I'm filling out a Spanish job application for an internship while abroad? That's a task in it of itself. The biggest advantage I have, that I have come to realize is that because I am from the midwest I am able to have my program deal with the consulate and get my visa for me, rather than having to appear in person to receive my visa like many of my peers who have studied abroad for an extended amount of time. This means not as many 2 hour drives to Chicago from home, multiple hours waiting in lines, and no forgotten or lost paperwork.

Far away far away, I want to go far away

For those of you who have talked to me recently about my study abroad plans my first response is "oh yeah, I'm going to spain" which is closely followed by the comment "that's assuming I win the battle of my classes transferring to count for my major." This so called battle has been going on for the last month, as initially none of the Spanish classes I planned to take in Spain were going to count towards my major (which is ridiculous since I'm going to the heart and soul of the Spanish language.) So I have been going back and forth with the head of the Modern and Classical Languages department as to what I could take. As of last week I was actually considering just giving up on Spain and going to some place exotic and random that had business classes to take, however today I won my battle and some. Not only did I get the one class I wanted to count towards my major to count, but also got all of my business classes to also count for my Spanish Linguistics for business settings major (since all the classes I will take are taught in Spanish,) so I get to double dip in classes, AND take a lighter load my senior year. Pretty sure winning this argument meant more to me than getting my acceptance letter yesterday. Having the classes I could potentially take written down on paper makes everything real, and seem tangible. I have a meeting with my study abroad adviser tomorrow to finalize plans etc. Keep you posted until then!

PS these are the courses I can potentially take:
Spain and International Economic Organization
Spanish Models of Organization and Management
Spain and the European Union
Advanced language Usage for Business
and then I have the opportunity to become contracted with a Spanish company and have it count as an Internship for my Spanish intensive International Business major!

Hope, Esperanza, and Reality

The word congratulations is used fairly frequently throughout the day. Congratulations on your graduation. Congratulations on the birth of your son. Congratulations on passing that class that you thought you were going to die in. It is said somtimes with true meaning, and other times said out of necessity. Today the word "congratulations" was said to me as the introduction to a journey I will never forget. I got my official letter of acceptance into the study abroad program here at the University of St. Thomas. Now you may all say, "well Laura you knew you were going to get accepted," however things never quite work out how I planned them to and I'm a fairly cynical person to begin with. Yes I realized I was going to get in, otherwise I wouldn't have started my blog almost a year ahead of time to talk about the whole process, however it would have been more dramatic if I had gotten a letter beginning with "to your dismay" or "we regret to inform you" luckily that's not the one I received.

The First of Many

You may be wondering why I would start my blog a little less than a year before I actually leave to study abroad in Madrid, Spain through IES, and my answer is why not show the whole process leading up to all of the adventure: applying, registering for classes, getting my visa, and of course finding out about my host family! On Thursday the 22nd of April I turned in my entire application to study abroad during the spring of 2011, my junior year. As of now I hope to return to the place I fell in love with almost 4 years ago to the day. I have pursued Spanish as my career of choice as well as international business, and I hope that I gain an infinite amount of experience while abroad. On the right hand side of the blog is a list of things I want to accomplish within my time abroad and a little bit while I'm still here in the states. My goal is to try to accomplish all of these things, so here goes nothing!