"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.





"A friend is a second self." -Aristotle

So I'm on the bus ride back from what was probably my most fun weekend of summer. I went to Cocoa beach (where we had our AFS pre-departure orientation) to visit a friend, Caroline, who I had met there. She is going to study abroad in Italy this coming year. It was so exciting and relieving to be able to talk to someone for 3 whole days about our thoughts about our upcoming school year. We can talk to our family and friends about this stuff, but we both know what each other is going through and have the same expectations. It was also a nice break from working. 

Day 1

I took the train to Orlando, where she picked me up. Then we went back to her house to unpack. Our plans were to go to the beach, but they kind of fell through, so we went to get frozen yogurt, and I met a friend of hers. Then we took the bus, which was both of our first experience of taking public transportation on our own! It was so exciting! It only cost 60 cents to get from the mall to the beach although we kept pestering various bus drivers to ask if they took Visa or how to get to the beach.  We felt so independent and realized that this was actually a legit thing that we would be using a lot soon. We actually weren't quite sure where to get off, but we ended up walking to different condos to find a bathroom and a pool. We finally reached a really nice condo and were let in my a man exiting. We enjoyed their hot tub until her mom picked us up. Later, two of her friends came over to swim and watch movies. 

Day 2

Caroline and I on the beach before the rain

The weather was forecasted to e awful, but we went to the beach for a couple hours and ate lunch at a beach themed restaurant. Afterwards, we went home and watched Netflix. That night, we went to the movies to see Now You See Me. It was a fantastic movie! I suggest you watch it.

Day 3

We went to a shopping mall and spent hours in World Trade Market. Of course the foreign exchange students would find plenty of things to do there! They had everything, and it was authentic, European foods. I left with beignet mix in a box and churro mix in a box. I also got this European cookie spread a friend had told me about. It's like a peanut butter or Nutella but made of cookies. Pleased with my purchases, we headed to Melting Pot where we pampered ourselves with a Swiss cheese and classic chocolate fondue.  We spent our remaining time shopping for clothes that we didn't need considering we can only bring 44 or so pounds in our suitcase abroad. We said goodbye and her parents took me to my bus, which I am currently on, to head back home.



Caroline eating the Swiss cheese fondue at Melting Pot



I wanted to explain two things from this trip. The first was that AFS is known for connecting lives and sharing cultures. We both thought it was so great that even though it isn't even September 4th yet and we aren't in Italy or Spain yet, we have already created these friendships that will last a long time. I can't explain enough how great it is to have somebody who is going through the same things as you to talk to, and we can also share our experiences with each other because they will both be special and unique! 

The second thing was about the people around you. When we take a second to talk to somebody, we find that we have things in common. The people passing by you or sitting next to you at a restaurant may just seem like ordinary humans, but they have traveled and have stories to tell too! Caroline and I used studying abroad as a conversation starter, and it worked every time(with our waitress at Melting Pot, with a guy at World Trade Market, and with randoms on the beach.) She and I were so thirsty at the beach that we asked a Spanish guy to take a picture of us and then continued to chat about studying abroad, Spanish, and quinceañeras, so he gave us free waters!  

Anyways, I had a great weekend and am even more excited to spend my year in Spain.

Reminded us of Italian gelato

Candid shots next to the fountain

"People travel for the same reason they collect works of art: becausethe best people do it."

                This post is very late. I've been wanting to write about my pre-departure orientation in Cocoa, Beach Florida but just haven't been able to get around to it. I thought it was kind of funny because as I was going to write this post, a post of an AFSer in Spain right now came up in my dashboard.

 Here is the link to the post: http://carolineduncombe.blogspot.com/2013/05/last-afs-orientation-in-el-masnou.html

                 It talks about how their last orientation was with people that would soon be leaving, like me. We just had the same orientation in America!

                  The orientation was so much fun. I wasn't really expecting it to be much. I didn't really even think too much about it, but it even furthered my excitement for  Spain! I got to talk to all of these fascinating people that are just like me and love languages, new experiences, and traveling. My favorite part was definitely meeting the people who had been living in the U.S. this year. It was sad to me to see how much they didn't want to go home and how that would be me in a year. We did some really cool activities and went over safety and the usual.
                One particular exercise we did that was really interesting to me was where you had to have a 5 minutes conversation with someone while both of your toes were touching. For people of different countries, it was not as awkward, but for us Americans, it was very uncomfortable. I found myself leaning backwards the whole time, but two guys from Europe had no trouble at all. It just shows you perspective of things.

                I met a new friend named Caroline who will be in Italy for a year. We found that we had a lot in common and hope to hang out again before we see each other in New York on September 6th. We have also planned to try and visit each other while we are abroad. We will see how that works out.

               Even just staying for one night in Florida with all these amazing people, I learned so much from them and have so much respect for them. We all got along so well,  and I'm glad that I have people to talk to about anything now. I still have kept in touch with many of them and plan to continue to do so.

                     Me and Nils, a foreign exchange student from Germany

                      All of the sending students talking on the beach

Me and Caroline, a future foreign exchange student to Italy who is like my twin