I’m going halfway across the world tomorrow and it just hit me. I use to think January 11, was so far but now its less than 24 hours away and I cannot believe it. I am about to experience one of the best moments of my life and I am super excited, I can’t wait to arrive to Turkey and explore Istanbul. I am currently trying to pack all of my wardrobe into one 50 lb suitcase and a small carry on. Packing is one of my pet peeves, I can never get it right.  I will be flying to Germany tomorrow and then Turkey.

I have nightmares about packing. They usually involved the same scenario – I’m about to leave on the trip of a lifetime, but I haven’t started packing yet! What will I need? What have I forgotten? I run to the airport with a half-empty suitcase, only to be woken up by my phone alarm and a desperate need for a cup of coffee. As a result, I have officially banned myself from asking the question of “what if?” over the next two weeks.

I can still hear my precocious 8-year-old host sister repeatedly asking me why I have to leave. I see my host father waving goodbye from the platform as my train pulls out of the station.  I regret not being able to find the appropriate vocabulary to tell them how much they meant to me and how much I’ll miss them, but I hope they know. The images of Nantes outside the window blur as the train picks up speed and my tears begin to cloud my vision.

Greetings Readers!

It has been an incredible first week in Ecuador. It was great to finally meet my host family… they are awesome! The first few days were full of orientations and getting to know the local area. We began classes on Wednesday and so far so good! We have taken a few trips to downtown Quito to see the historic area and botanical gardens. I’m definitely practicing my Spanish a lot and am learning new words, like chévere (c0ol), which is super common here.

Preparing to leave for Salamanca has been characterized by a new, distinctive feeling of anticipation that isn’t quite like any I’ve experienced before: a sort of self-precluding nervousness.

I’m a compulsive planner. For me, the unexpected is far more stressful than any exam or final paper. A friend, upon returning from study abroad in South America, recalled countless moments of unpredictability during her semester, including a time where she arranged to meet with a professor at noon only to find out upon arriving at his classroom that he was teaching until 4 o’clock. Study abroad would be good for me, she said, it would teach me to go with the flow. Naturally, I panicked.

In February of last year things we’re going great for me.  I was happily entrenched in my major coursework, I had secured two campus jobs that I really enjoyed, it was (as always) obscenely warm for the season, and I was surrounded by an amazing group of friends.  I go to Claremont McKenna College in California; we’ve been ranked the number-one happiest school in America several times and – trust me – we’ll gleefully shove that factoid down your throat should you join us for a campus tour.  My life I knew it in the liberal arts bubble