Today is Sunday, June 22 2014. My flight is wedensday morning at 8 AM.
I am getting more and more anxious to go. Since I got out of school, I have been sitting at home, watching a lot of world cup (still bitter about the spain loss, but alas) and twiddling my thumbs as I wait impatiently. I am extremely excited and anxious to leave.
It is nerve racking because the most memorable parts of travelling are the unexpected things that happen. The first time I went to Europe was three years ago, and a huge variety of unexpected things happened (some good, some bad) that are some of the most memorable parts of the trip. The first night of the whole trip was in London. I ended up getting locked out of my hotel room for 3.5 hours because long story short, my assigned room mate fell asleep in the room and had the only room key.
At the time, it was frustrating but I was able to have a really good attitude while we waited and tried to figure out how to find my room mate (we did not know he was sleeping soundly in the room during the whole 3.5 hours). Here I was, first time travelling in Europe, and not even one full day in the country and something bad had already happened to me; however, despite this unexpected misfortune, I remember thinking to myself 'I could let this bother me, but I am not going to. Instead, I am going to have a good attitude, and make this a fun night even though I haven't slept in over 48 hours'. And I did it! In the process of trying to 'find' my room mate (who we assumed had left to go someplace and had not come back) I ended up getting to know the people in my own group more, and I met two new friends from a different group that was on the same tour as us. My group and those new friends ended up hanging out together for the rest of the whole trip, and it was a blast. All of this happened because of my good attitude, and not letting getting locked out of my room stop me from enjoying my time in Europe.
"Unexpected travel plans are dancing lessons from God" -Kurt Vonnegut
I hope I can have this same attitude in my Spanish adventure coming up. I have absolutely no idea what to expect: I don't know who I am going to befriend, who I will get along well with, how my host family will be, what I am going to enjoy/dislike, and in general what's going to happen. This is intimidating, because I like to think things out and plan ahead and know well in advance what's going to happen, in all things in life. However, going to Spain is something I really cannot do much to prepare for, other than have a good attitude going in. I want to be open to everything, whether that be trying new things, stepping out of my comfort zone, meeting new people, and going to new places. I know there will be times where things won't go according to plan, and when that happens, I hope I can have the positive/go-with-the-flow attitude I had that first night in London three years ago.
Most of all, I want to have an amazing time. I hope more than anything that when my time in Spain/Europe is done and I come back home, that I return wanting more, longing to go back. That is when I know that I had an amazing experience. This is going to be something I remember for the rest of my life, and I am so excited for that.
