So, about 20 minutes before our flight it was cancelled due to the blizzard in New York. The phrase of the day is ´anti-climatic, much?´ We used this to describe our situation a lot and we waited over an hour for Kelsey´s friend to come back to Raleigh and pick us up just as she got back home. It was so crazy to be so nervous and so excited and then 20 mintues before you embark on this epic adventure you find out you have to wait another day even though you've already psyched yourself up. Man... So, I just got home and I have all these people to email like our hostel and our university to let them know what's going on and to save money so we don't get charged fees.
Our new flight plan is to leave Raleigh at 7:25pm and go to Miami. We'll arrive in Miami at 9:25pm then we'll have an overnight flight from Miami straight to Montevideo from 11:10pm to 11:20am. I hate that we are no longer going through Brazil but we're going to try to make it to Rio de Janiero at some point so we'll make up for it.
I only got three hours of sleep last night in an effort to exhaust myself so I could just sleep on the planes and also to clean and pack so I'm really exhausted right now. Well, good thing Raleigh isn't too far away from Greensboro so I can sleep in my own bed for one more night. I'm actually going to get eight hours of sleep this time as we get to do it all over again tomorrow!
February 25, 2010
Today is the day!
This post isn't going to be long at all, but I won't have time to do it tomorrow so here we go!
At the moment I'm taking a brief break from my frantic packing to take a breather and open a gift a friend gave me (Thanks, Kelli, even though I haven't opened it yet!) Packing for 10 months is so hard to do and keep your suitcase under 50 lbs. I haven't weighed my suitcase yet, but I already know I'll have to take a lot of stuff out. I'm really exhausted and stressed and I hope that this means when I do get on the planes I will pass out before we even lift off. I HATE flying and it would be awesome to just skip the flights and just go through the airports.
I am just really nervous for this big adventure and hope that I can arrive safely and find a laptop or computer somewhere that I can get on before mine arrives in the mail. Bestbuy headquarters is STILL fixing my laptop over a month later and I'm just not going to get it back before I leave tomorrow. This presents a huge problem in that my cell phone probably won't work and if something happens... I'll just have to pay the outrageous international fees and call my parents somehow. I might just have to go to school early and see if the Director will let me use her computer. Who knows, but it's really stressful not having a sure way to tell my parents I arrived and I'm okay.
But yeah that's everything in a nut shell. I really hope everything goes okay and I would really appreciate prayers and thoughts for me and my travel companions for the next 48 hours as we travel and adjust to our new envrionment. Adios, amigos!
At the moment I'm taking a brief break from my frantic packing to take a breather and open a gift a friend gave me (Thanks, Kelli, even though I haven't opened it yet!) Packing for 10 months is so hard to do and keep your suitcase under 50 lbs. I haven't weighed my suitcase yet, but I already know I'll have to take a lot of stuff out. I'm really exhausted and stressed and I hope that this means when I do get on the planes I will pass out before we even lift off. I HATE flying and it would be awesome to just skip the flights and just go through the airports.
I am just really nervous for this big adventure and hope that I can arrive safely and find a laptop or computer somewhere that I can get on before mine arrives in the mail. Bestbuy headquarters is STILL fixing my laptop over a month later and I'm just not going to get it back before I leave tomorrow. This presents a huge problem in that my cell phone probably won't work and if something happens... I'll just have to pay the outrageous international fees and call my parents somehow. I might just have to go to school early and see if the Director will let me use her computer. Who knows, but it's really stressful not having a sure way to tell my parents I arrived and I'm okay.
But yeah that's everything in a nut shell. I really hope everything goes okay and I would really appreciate prayers and thoughts for me and my travel companions for the next 48 hours as we travel and adjust to our new envrionment. Adios, amigos!
February 19, 2010
Almost there!
Six more days until I take a 23 hour journey to my new favorite place! I can't be as excited as I want to be right now since I received three vaccinations yesterday and am currently experiencing flu-like symptoms. Not fun... but I will now be able to fight off Typhoid Fever, Hepatitis A, and Yellow Fever. Whoo!
For the first six days the girls and me have everything figured out so far. We've booked a hostel and met a girl, Rachel, who can help us get situated. She's from UNC- Chapel Hill, which is really close to our university, so I immediately feel comforted in that she will be the one to help us out.
A lot of people have been asking me about how I feel with the departure date looming and if I am excited. It really depends on the day how I feel about everything. I have days where I'm so excited then days where I am just making lists in my head. There's just a lot to think about and so many ways to feel about this situation. I've never left the country, even home, for more than ten months by myself yet I love Spanish and the fact that I'll be in an evironment where people, signs, and TV will all be in Spanish. I guess if I had to pick one word for it it would be that I feel overwhelmed. In both a good and bad way, but I'm keeping a positive attitude about the whole thing and taking everything in stride.
Nothing is set in stone yet after those first six days. I'm not sure if it´s just Latin American culture or the University I am going to. Or maybe it´s just an American thing to want to know exactly how things are going to happen and what to expect when you arrive to a new place. I know this is probably just typical study abroad things that people learn in my situation, but it´s harder dealing with it even though I knew it was coming. But everything will work out mostly because it has to! After all the research I've done, I feel good about this experience and that I will be able to manage it with the help of the other students from UM. There are only 13 international students including myself and we've already been emailing each other so that's a good sign.
And I would say the second most common thing people ask me when they realize Uruguay is a Spanish-speaking country is "Can you speak Spanish? Will you be able to get around?" Yes, I can speak Spanish though not fluently yet and yes, I will be able to get around. People always ask me this like they can't believe I'm attempting to go to a country that isn't too English-friendly, but I really don't think it will be too bad. I'm far enough along in the Spanish major where I can take the basics I've learned and start to really use them and build upon them to gain fluency. It definitely won't be easy going from speaking my broken Spanish to my American Spanish teachers to being able to speak fluidly to any Spanish speaking person, but I'm confident that I can accomplish this before I leave Uruguay. Plus, I'm pretty sure I have the most classroom hours in my little group of three people so I'll have to step my game up and make sure I can help us find housing and get around the city, and explore our new school. I write better than I speak Spanish, though, so if worse comes to worse I'll just whip out an empty notepad (International students would do this to me at UNCG and it seemed to really help them) and just write down what I want to say on it.
The only big thing that still needs to be done is for me to get my laptop back from HP headquarters. I reall need it before I leave, so I can contact my parents when I arrive via Skype and, of course, I'll need it for school. The next biggest thing is packing... oh, goodness. How on earth does one pack for 10 months?
I wrote this post over a few days and as I'm finishing it I have four more days until I leave. I find myself being very nostalgic as I spend my last days in this familiar place and even saying "Oh my gosh" out loud a lot as it keeps hitting me that I really signed up for this. I'm really looking forward to it and thankful for all the people that have helped me get here by filling out papers on my behalf and holding my jobs and just supporting me as I've had to watch all the other international students leave while I'm still here. So, thank you guys and the next post will be on the day that I leave... in four days... on Thursday!
For the first six days the girls and me have everything figured out so far. We've booked a hostel and met a girl, Rachel, who can help us get situated. She's from UNC- Chapel Hill, which is really close to our university, so I immediately feel comforted in that she will be the one to help us out.
A lot of people have been asking me about how I feel with the departure date looming and if I am excited. It really depends on the day how I feel about everything. I have days where I'm so excited then days where I am just making lists in my head. There's just a lot to think about and so many ways to feel about this situation. I've never left the country, even home, for more than ten months by myself yet I love Spanish and the fact that I'll be in an evironment where people, signs, and TV will all be in Spanish. I guess if I had to pick one word for it it would be that I feel overwhelmed. In both a good and bad way, but I'm keeping a positive attitude about the whole thing and taking everything in stride.
Nothing is set in stone yet after those first six days. I'm not sure if it´s just Latin American culture or the University I am going to. Or maybe it´s just an American thing to want to know exactly how things are going to happen and what to expect when you arrive to a new place. I know this is probably just typical study abroad things that people learn in my situation, but it´s harder dealing with it even though I knew it was coming. But everything will work out mostly because it has to! After all the research I've done, I feel good about this experience and that I will be able to manage it with the help of the other students from UM. There are only 13 international students including myself and we've already been emailing each other so that's a good sign.
And I would say the second most common thing people ask me when they realize Uruguay is a Spanish-speaking country is "Can you speak Spanish? Will you be able to get around?" Yes, I can speak Spanish though not fluently yet and yes, I will be able to get around. People always ask me this like they can't believe I'm attempting to go to a country that isn't too English-friendly, but I really don't think it will be too bad. I'm far enough along in the Spanish major where I can take the basics I've learned and start to really use them and build upon them to gain fluency. It definitely won't be easy going from speaking my broken Spanish to my American Spanish teachers to being able to speak fluidly to any Spanish speaking person, but I'm confident that I can accomplish this before I leave Uruguay. Plus, I'm pretty sure I have the most classroom hours in my little group of three people so I'll have to step my game up and make sure I can help us find housing and get around the city, and explore our new school. I write better than I speak Spanish, though, so if worse comes to worse I'll just whip out an empty notepad (International students would do this to me at UNCG and it seemed to really help them) and just write down what I want to say on it.
The only big thing that still needs to be done is for me to get my laptop back from HP headquarters. I reall need it before I leave, so I can contact my parents when I arrive via Skype and, of course, I'll need it for school. The next biggest thing is packing... oh, goodness. How on earth does one pack for 10 months?
I wrote this post over a few days and as I'm finishing it I have four more days until I leave. I find myself being very nostalgic as I spend my last days in this familiar place and even saying "Oh my gosh" out loud a lot as it keeps hitting me that I really signed up for this. I'm really looking forward to it and thankful for all the people that have helped me get here by filling out papers on my behalf and holding my jobs and just supporting me as I've had to watch all the other international students leave while I'm still here. So, thank you guys and the next post will be on the day that I leave... in four days... on Thursday!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)