In approximately 24 hours, I will be in another country.
Though I've prepared for this day for months, it was not until yesterday that I've finally come to accept that. It's not that I'm not stoked; I don't believe Mr. Willis or Mr. Stallone could match how thrilled I am. But puns aside, it has been a process to get to where I am now, both mentally and emotionally.
毎日は日本について新しいことを色々習って、温泉をしてみたり、ほとんどの時間日本語ではなしたりしました。
There’s literally no space for homesickness to kick in when the first four nights in Japan were already spent moving around between two different cities. I was simply amazed and infatuated with the cohesive mixture of urban and rural aura that is Japan. At least I was able to observe that sort of atmosphere in both cities of Nagoya and Inuyama where IES Abroad held their orientation.
One Sunday, my friends and I decided to visit Valladolid to see a soccer game. Salamanca, unfortunately, no longer has a soccer team, but Valladolid was a fairly short bus ride away, so we thought we’d make the trip.
After three nights in London, I’m finally feeling somewhat adjusted to the time difference between New York and most of Europe. I spent some quality time with friends while there and did my best to go to bed about an hour earlier each night – I managed to fall asleep last night just before midnight UK time!
In a few hours I will be leaving home for the Kotoka International Airport, Accra, Ghana. As I have twice before, I will be hopping on a plane and flying off to some place far away from my family and childhood friends for school. Previously, the destination was the US, this time, it's Milan, Italy.
When I woke up this morning, there was a half-second – a tiny lingering moment – where I didn’t know where I was. It’s something that comes, I guess, with traveling. My body has been on both sides of the Atlantic this year, has slept in rooms in Dublin and Cork, Country Clare and Country Antrim, London and Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Vienna. Sometimes, it’s a little disorienting.
Landed in London.
And thus commenced the first week of my semester in England.
So, I perform. I am a performer. And most of the time, I perform fairly well. This is not me patting myself on the back; it is simply an acknowledgement that my hard work typically tends to pay off. And, of course, my training in classical voice is not something I could have undergone by myself! So many teachers and friends have helped me develop my performance skills; it would be impossible to name each and every one of them.
When my friend first suggested traveling to San Sebastián in December, I worried that it would be too cold to actually have fun. Thankfully, our stay was surprisingly warm. Also, because we visited during an off-season, we never had to face crowded beaches.
This morning I finally stopped waking up with hundreds of anxious thoughts about leaving running through my head, and instead I just woke up excited. I am leaving tomorrow morning for Quito, Ecuador! The last couple days before leaving have been hard because they are filled with times when I have come to the realization that I am really leaving for months to live in a country where people speak a different language.