Where on Earth am I Going?

       Well, I guess I should give you some background on myself. My name is Amanda, I’m a sophomore, and I will be spending the next academic year studying abroad with the ISA at Universidad Antonio de Nebrija in Madrid, Spain. I am a triple major in Spanish, International Relations, and Criminal Justice and will be completing credits for Spanish and International Relations while abroad. I have been to Spain twice before in my life: once my junior year of high school for a three-week exchange and once the summer after my senior year of high school to visit all my international students. I have had 5 international students from Spain, three from Toledo and two brothers from Madrid. The first time I went to Spain, I fell in love with the language and culture and since then I have been waiting tables to attempt to scrape up enough money to study abroad for as long as I could there.

       I will be living with a host family in a cute little apartment in the center of Madrid. My host family is a mom and her 10-year old daughter. I’ll be taking 4 classes per semester in Spanish. By now you’re probably wondering if I’m crazy and I’m pretty sure I am because my Spanish is decent but I have no clue if it’s decent enough to handle living with a Spanish family and taking classes entirely in Spanish for two semesters. But whatever I have 22 days to figure it out before I’m there so yay! And even better, I haven’t even thought about how I’m going to pack 9 months of stuff into two suitcases a duffel and a backpack. Spacebags are going to become my best friend over the next few weeks and I cannot wait to utilize my family members as weights to help me close my suitcases.

       Ah yes speaking of my family, how did I convince them to let me go? I convinced them to go the summer after my senior year of high school so they could see for themselves why I fell in love with Spain. They were able to meet the family of the two brothers who we hosted from Madrid, and they know if I ever get into any trouble while I’m there (which I would never dream of doing of course) that I will have a family there to help me. Well that’s enough background for this post so get excited because next time I’m going to teach you how to pack for nine months of travel!