A Few Final Thoughts

I'm leaving today! My flight from Boston to Atlanta leaves in 5 hours. Oh man. I'm not really nervous; I'm excited to meet everyone and to see Buenos Aires and get into the swing of things. I am, however, dreading this plane ride. I really love traveling in different places but I hate flying, especially on long flights. Just two weeks ago I was in transit for over 24 hours on my way back from Israel, so I'm not particularly looking forward to doing this again. Fortunately there is barely a time change so my body won't feel jet lagged or confused.

I thought I'd share some of my goals, expectations and challenges on my blog so my family and friends that read this will have some notion of my motives in Buenos Aires. First and foremost, I am studying abroad in BA to improve my Spanish. I have had a less than satisfactory experience with the Spanish department at Colby, yet I think it says something about my love of Spanish that I am already so psyched to be immersed it in. I've changed my computer and even my facebook(!) into Spanish. I want to blog in Spanish but I know this might alienate some of you. My Spanish is already pretty good; I can't wait for it to get even better. I want to come back from Argentina dreaming in Spanish.

I am also hoping to embrace the BA city life. I'm definitely a country mouse so to speak, and I sometimes am not even completely comfortable in Boston. Buenos Aires is about 15 million people if you include the metropolitan areas. And consider this: both Concord and Waterville have about 17,000 people. University of Buenos Aires alone has 300,000 students. I know that number is hard to believe but it's true. Needless to say I think I'm going to feel out of my element. When I chose BA as my study abroad destination, I figured this was a good time to see if I could survive or thrive in an extremely urban environment. I'm definitely looking forward to being cosmopolitan, but I also am aware that cosmopolitan is not my natural state of being.

What hasn't truly hit me yet is the length of my time abroad. Even at school, I somehow manage to come home once a month. So not only have I not been away from my home, my bed and access to things in my room for very long, it also means that I've seen my family and pets often as well. But now, I won't be back home until July, and I'll see my family once between now and then. I think it's going to be very hard. Skype is definitely going to be instrumental for staying in contact, but it won't be the same. I am actually going to be independent from my family. I like to think that I am usually, but never before have I been this far removed from them. I think I'll be fine, but we'll see.

At this point I just have to shower, finish packing (and hope that my suitcase is under 50 lbs), and get my car washed before we leave for the airport. I have a long day of traveling ahead of me, and I can't wait to get there. Once I have stable internet, a shower and a nap I'll update again.

70s and sunny,
Rachel