I have three days left until I fly to Sevilla. Whenever people ask me if it feels "real yet," they're usually referring to this moment of realization that I am actually going to Spain for a year. Honestly, in the two years that I've spent scheming to become part of RYE, it has never felt quite as real as right now. In the corner of my room there is a massive, half-filled suitcase that represents the current state of my life: hectic and disorganized, with one foot in Europe and one in North America. Tomorrow (hopefully), I'll dump it out and repack with a little more precision to get on a flight at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday from Boston. I arrive in Madrid on Sunday morning with a short layover before an hour flight to Sevilla, where my host family will meet me.
Three days left...
It feels like I haven't even had a summer between a summer gym class, American Literature online, and various preparations for my departure. Suddenly everyone else is back in school, marching band, and soccer without me; this is an experience that I honestly cannot describe. I'm eager to leave, nervous about arriving, sad to leave my family and friends, and tired because it's hard sleeping when you're this excited. I am the last from District 7870 to leave, so every day I see pictures from Chile, Germany, India, Bosnia, and other countries on Facebook from my friends.
A week and a half ago, my wonderful sister Hilary along with my friends Corinne and Michaela threw me a surprise going away party. Our house is still decked out with red and yellow streamers, but we finished the amazing whipped cream marble cake right away.
On Monday night the Miller family headed up to Pine Point for a going away Spanish themed tapas party for my cousin (studying in Madrid for the semester), my sister (teaching in Tudela for a year), and me (studying in Sevilla for a year). We're about as spread out as you can be while still being in the same country, which will let us have our own independent experiences! All three of us researched, applied for, and were accepted to our different programs without really planning it together. The Millers and Mancinis are invading Spain this year. Pictured is my home in
Sevilla, Ryan's in
Madrid, and Hilary's in
Tudela:
Tomorrow night, Thursday September 5, I'm presenting to the Timberlane School Board about Rotary and my exchange, hopefully spreading awareness about this amazing program and its global impact. It's amazing to have an opportunity like this at my age and I believe that the youth exchange really does change the world. RYE is not comparable to other "study abroad" programs for thousands of reasons, among which are the global network of contacts, the young age of its participants, the focus on ambassadorship, and the amazing people that are involved as counselors, officers, and host families. I have not yet left for Spain and RYE has already completely changed who I am as a person in this past year: I am more confident, more capable, and more mature than the girl who, last September, applied to go to Spain. Rotary treats its teenagers like adults who are capable of having opinions, making decisions, speaking for themselves, and taking care of themselves. The only way to grow in the way that I have (and will next year) is to be out of your comfort zone, meeting people from all over the country and world, and pushing yourself. With this believe comes a shameless urging to anyone reading this who is considering a study abroad, whether in college or through Rotary: do it. Rarely can I say as confidently as I do now that exchange is not something you regret because even the "bad" experiences are still worth it.
There are presentations to be prepared, tests to be taken, and bags to be packed so I will try to write once I get to Spain! ¡Hasta luego!
I'll do a quick update on everything that's going on here. I arrived in Spain last Sunday and spent the week here before heading to Madrid for the orientation for Inbounds. It was a little more than six hours in bus to Madrid, before getting on another bus to the campamento where we spent the weekend (about an hour and a half outside of the city, in the Guadalarama mountain range). It was an amazing experience to meet and know so many students who are all in the same boat as I am, although I wish there were more international students. With the exception of a few students from Canada, one from Austria, and one from Japan, all the Inbounds in these two districts (2202 and 2203, mine) are American. Because of this, and because many kids still don't have a great handle on Spanish, the whole orientation was held in English. Saturday afternoon we hiked out to an incredible view of el Valle de los Caídos. It was built by Franco, partly using political prisoners, and he is buried there. 
