"Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God." -Kurt Vonnegut

 

My family at the beach in Benidorm



Each day, Spain becomes realer and realer to me. For example, my family and I took a trip to Miami for an appointment at the Spanish consulate. My time in Miami was a nice, short vacation. I was surprised that so many people there spoke Spanish. Actually, there are more people that weren't speaking English than those that were. We went to mainly Spanish restaurants, and they talked to us about Spain and to me in Spanish. It also helped in that we got free food!Even though the trip was for getting my visa, we did a lot of fun things too. We went airboating in the Everglades, I hung out with a friend from Miami, and I got to meet up with my bestfriend from elementary school. 





My article in the paper



The actual visa appointment itself was extremely underwhelming. We expected it to be sitting down with someone who would ask me questions about my trip to Spain, but we just had to hand our papers to a secretary. She then gave half of the stuff that was required back to us and said we didn't need it. I hope the visa comes soon, but there is really no telling. It was just funny that we had to drive 8 hours to hand some papers to a lady behind a glass wall. 



I also was interviewed for my local newspaper. They put my picture on the front page and an article about my trip to Spain and my love for travel in it. People have recognized me from work and my parent's friends have seen me in the paper! It is a cool feeling. Here is a link to the article. 

http://www.thebrunswicknews.com/story/printer/CoastalPeopleBlackwell-080513-hr 





Miami





I've also already made some friends going to Spain. I have talked to many of the people that will be spending the next year with me, but the conversations can vary greatly. I've spent the last two nights Facetiming Katrina and Sean. It makes me all the more excited to spend the best year of my life with these people. It's great that not only do we have our family and friends to share our experiences with but also people who are having the same experiences as us at the same time. 



Tonight, my family is having Thanksgiving and the AFS Spain Americans are having a phone call all together with a Spain returnee. With only 27 days left, a little less than 4 weeks, I am going to have to start packing soon and saying goodbye to my friends. I've already gotten presents for my host family. My little sisters are going to be so spoiled since kid's clothes are the cutest. I've already bought them some coloring and small picture books and bathing suits since I thought it was kind of odd they weren't wearing any to the beach. I made a book on Mixbook about my life in the US for my parents and plan to pick them up some Swiss chocolates while we are in the airport.