Jan 6th – Day of No Sleep (from me since I know have internet!!)

This day is literally what it means. I have checked my luggage and am officially bound for Spain. And while goodbyes are hard to take I had, in a failed attempt, promised myself that I wouldn’t cry. Obviously this didn’t happen because the moment mom started sniffling and squeezing tighter, my tears started running too. I know I’ll miss my family a lot as well as my friends but this experience I have to do for myself. And to get the reward I need and want from it, I have to do it alone. Scary thought though. The flights were okay, the main flight from Newark to Madrid felt the scariest for me because this was truly the point of no return. It would become official, and I was really doing this. I remember watching 3 episodes of House, Secondhand Lions, and some movie with ‘The Rock’ where he’s a football player and has a little girl. I made friends with the 2 girls next to me, who were both unfortunately not bound for the same school as I but at least they were in Spain. Laura (who is going to Madrid from NYU) is a crazy, northern partier from New Jersey and while her accent was unmistakable, I knew her and I would become good friends. She reminded me of friends from back home. The other girl was Megan (who was going to Toledo from a University in North Dakota where sororities are big there too) who was a small town gal from North Dakota who surprisingly only taken two semesters, total, of Spanish at college. I was beyond impressed and nervous for her and with her but I think she would catch on soon enough.