So. Someone recommended to me that I start a blog for my job search, so that employers have current writing samples readily available. I am HOPING to have a job by May, so at the moment, this is only intended as a semester-long endeavor. As such, it's the "Victory Lap" blog, where I chronicle the excitement and the challenges of being a last semester college senior. Here goes...
EXACTLY one year from tomorrow, I left for a four-month study abroad experience in Granada, Spain. After months (actually years) of impatiently waiting for second-semester junior year to come, so that I could finally LIVE abroad (and travel, travel, travel!), I was a MESS of anxiety one year ago tonight. It was finally hitting me that not only did I have to pack for four months in a measly TWO suitcases (with my shoe collection, no small task)--but I also faced separation from my family and my best friend by an ocean and a 7-hour time difference until MAY (luckily, besides my best friend, the majority of my other close friends would be abroad with me, either in Spain, Paris or Rome). It felt surreal the morning of January 13th, leaving for the airport and knowing that when I came back to the U.S., not only would the 2-ft of snow have melted, but I would also have traveled to a handful of new COUNTRIES (and even a new continent, thanks to my weekend trip to Morocco) and met amazing new friends. It is a bit sad, one year later, that instead of boarding a plane for four months of fabulous adventures, tomorrow I will babysit for four kids for five hours and then hurry to a 2:00 dental appointment. YET, in spite of the depressing lack of European destinations penciled into my planner, I'm also getting excited about that changes that the next four months will (hopefully!) bring. No, I won't travel to a new continent, but hopefully once I land a job, I can start planning out my next big trip (my friend Caroline and I are thinking Peru and hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The only real issue with this is that Caroline has NEVER hiked before, and my one experience (last Spring in the Spanish Alpujarras) was a bit of a struggle/disaster. So potential goal for Spring 2010: strengthen relevent hiking muscles? Find outdoorsy friend to teach us secret Peruvian mountain-climbing techniques?). SO. Instead of being bummed that I am not moving into Hostel Atenas for orientation tomorrow night, I am going to look up pictures of famous Inca ruins and get excited about the future...
(And outdoorsy friend...if you exist out there: start researching cheap hiking boots and anti-snake venom for me!)
EXACTLY one year from tomorrow, I left for a four-month study abroad experience in Granada, Spain. After months (actually years) of impatiently waiting for second-semester junior year to come, so that I could finally LIVE abroad (and travel, travel, travel!), I was a MESS of anxiety one year ago tonight. It was finally hitting me that not only did I have to pack for four months in a measly TWO suitcases (with my shoe collection, no small task)--but I also faced separation from my family and my best friend by an ocean and a 7-hour time difference until MAY (luckily, besides my best friend, the majority of my other close friends would be abroad with me, either in Spain, Paris or Rome). It felt surreal the morning of January 13th, leaving for the airport and knowing that when I came back to the U.S., not only would the 2-ft of snow have melted, but I would also have traveled to a handful of new COUNTRIES (and even a new continent, thanks to my weekend trip to Morocco) and met amazing new friends. It is a bit sad, one year later, that instead of boarding a plane for four months of fabulous adventures, tomorrow I will babysit for four kids for five hours and then hurry to a 2:00 dental appointment. YET, in spite of the depressing lack of European destinations penciled into my planner, I'm also getting excited about that changes that the next four months will (hopefully!) bring. No, I won't travel to a new continent, but hopefully once I land a job, I can start planning out my next big trip (my friend Caroline and I are thinking Peru and hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The only real issue with this is that Caroline has NEVER hiked before, and my one experience (last Spring in the Spanish Alpujarras) was a bit of a struggle/disaster. So potential goal for Spring 2010: strengthen relevent hiking muscles? Find outdoorsy friend to teach us secret Peruvian mountain-climbing techniques?). SO. Instead of being bummed that I am not moving into Hostel Atenas for orientation tomorrow night, I am going to look up pictures of famous Inca ruins and get excited about the future...
(And outdoorsy friend...if you exist out there: start researching cheap hiking boots and anti-snake venom for me!)
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