And so the countdown begins... 11 days left and I couldn't feel less ready. Time is all starting to slow down but speed up all at once as I near my departure date. I am feeling a very potent mixture of excitement and nervousness. Packing is still way at the back of my mind, it seems to me that packing is my final good bye to my home. The goodbye's have begun. I have already seen some very important people for the last time in a year, and I have many more goodbyes yet.
It still seems so weird... The thought that less than 2 weeks from now I will be in another country with a new family and a new school surrounded by people who speak another language. I am certainly very nervous about school and the language. My host mother tried to explain it to me over a Facebook message, but it is pretty hard to communicate with her. I seem to have deciphered some important things but I remain clueless on most fronts. I know that in the end there will be a huge pay off, but I am not going to kid myself into thinking that the beginning is going to be easy. I know I will have some catastrophic failures and embarrass myself beyond belief, but for know I feel confident in the fact that for everything I mess up there will be at least 10 more things I learn.
There are many things I am excited about, and many things that I am nervous about. Most things are reasonable, and some are irrational.
I am nervous about:
- The language barrier (that I will not be about to happily or easily blend with the people or the culture if I can't really communicate with them)
- The school system (that I wont understand how anything works and there will be no one who is able to explain it to me, or that I will (probably) fail all of my classes due to the fact that I can't understand anything that is being taught.)
- That my family and I won't get along (they seem like really great people through the internet, but what if things just don't work out in person?)
- I am afraid I won't make any friends (it's hard to have friends when you cant really talk to anybody.)
- And lastly, and this one is dumb I know, but I am afraid that I will be swarmed by males because of my hair and skin tone. This sounds soooo shallow I know, but believe me, I have done my research and spoken with girls who have been down there to study abroad. The people down there sure love themselves some blonde hair and light skin and blue eyes. I have been told that daily listening to men cat calling me on the street will be a reality. I am strong, I know I can do ignore it, but that doesn't mean I won't lose my nerve every once in awhile.
Well now that this post has taken a turn for the worse (bear with me), I should change gears here a little bit.
These are things I am excited for:
- I can't wait to become fluent in spanish, or at least close to it. I will be able to pick up on modern Costa Rican spanish and slang because I will be surrounded by young people.
- I look forward to making a whole new community of friends with whom I will spend a year getting to know and learning from.
- I look forward to having a new family to show me their lives and what they enjoy doing and what being a Costa Rican is like.
- I will really love living in such a nice climate for a year of my life
- I will come back with really good stories, which will make small talk 200% easier. (and hey, you don't have to endure awkward small talk when you can't speak the language.)
- FRESH FRUIT IN EVERY MEAL. ANY TIME OF THE DAY. EVERYWHERE I GO. I MEAN COME ON.
Well Now that you have a better idea of my hopes and my fears for my year about I hope you will bear with what every blog posts or lack there of I post in this upcoming year. This will be 11 months of mood swings that you as my readers will have to deal with, but I will try to remain stable for your sake. 11 days.. Lets see where this journey takes me. The only thing I can be sure about my future from here, is that is will be accidentally fantastic.
Emma, the wanderlust.
It still seems so weird... The thought that less than 2 weeks from now I will be in another country with a new family and a new school surrounded by people who speak another language. I am certainly very nervous about school and the language. My host mother tried to explain it to me over a Facebook message, but it is pretty hard to communicate with her. I seem to have deciphered some important things but I remain clueless on most fronts. I know that in the end there will be a huge pay off, but I am not going to kid myself into thinking that the beginning is going to be easy. I know I will have some catastrophic failures and embarrass myself beyond belief, but for know I feel confident in the fact that for everything I mess up there will be at least 10 more things I learn.
There are many things I am excited about, and many things that I am nervous about. Most things are reasonable, and some are irrational.
I am nervous about:
- The language barrier (that I will not be about to happily or easily blend with the people or the culture if I can't really communicate with them)
- The school system (that I wont understand how anything works and there will be no one who is able to explain it to me, or that I will (probably) fail all of my classes due to the fact that I can't understand anything that is being taught.)
- That my family and I won't get along (they seem like really great people through the internet, but what if things just don't work out in person?)
- I am afraid I won't make any friends (it's hard to have friends when you cant really talk to anybody.)
- And lastly, and this one is dumb I know, but I am afraid that I will be swarmed by males because of my hair and skin tone. This sounds soooo shallow I know, but believe me, I have done my research and spoken with girls who have been down there to study abroad. The people down there sure love themselves some blonde hair and light skin and blue eyes. I have been told that daily listening to men cat calling me on the street will be a reality. I am strong, I know I can do ignore it, but that doesn't mean I won't lose my nerve every once in awhile.
Well now that this post has taken a turn for the worse (bear with me), I should change gears here a little bit.
These are things I am excited for:
- I can't wait to become fluent in spanish, or at least close to it. I will be able to pick up on modern Costa Rican spanish and slang because I will be surrounded by young people.
- I look forward to making a whole new community of friends with whom I will spend a year getting to know and learning from.
- I look forward to having a new family to show me their lives and what they enjoy doing and what being a Costa Rican is like.
- I will really love living in such a nice climate for a year of my life
- I will come back with really good stories, which will make small talk 200% easier. (and hey, you don't have to endure awkward small talk when you can't speak the language.)
- FRESH FRUIT IN EVERY MEAL. ANY TIME OF THE DAY. EVERYWHERE I GO. I MEAN COME ON.
Well Now that you have a better idea of my hopes and my fears for my year about I hope you will bear with what every blog posts or lack there of I post in this upcoming year. This will be 11 months of mood swings that you as my readers will have to deal with, but I will try to remain stable for your sake. 11 days.. Lets see where this journey takes me. The only thing I can be sure about my future from here, is that is will be accidentally fantastic.
Emma, the wanderlust.