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.