Breathing

I don't generally complain that my life is boring. I understand that life can't be like the movies-- love doesn't often happen at first sight, I won't always have a great hair day, and no, I probably won't save the world-- but every once in a while my life gets really, really exciting. It's pretty exciting right now, don't get me wrong. I've started dating a cute boy and I'm happier than I have been in a while. But it's about to get even more exciting.

Want to know why? I'll let you in on a little secret:


I'M GOING ABROAD NEXT SEMESTER!!


To Argentina, of all places!!


That's right. You read that right. I'm going to be living in a wonderful, foreign city, staying with a family I don't know and speaking in a language I don't fully speak. I'm going to navigate a city I've never been to in a hemisphere I've also never been to. I'm going to be taking all my classes in Spanish and trying to make friends. I even plan to fence down in Argentina, which will be both strange and exciting but leaves me with the problem of carting all my equipment down there.

In reality I am both excited and mortally terrified. College has been the first time I've ever been away from home for any extended period of time, and I'm really not all that far away from home. I see my parents every couple of weeks during the fencing season because my meets are all in the area and I get to go home during breaks. But Argentina is not only another country, it's in another hemisphere. It's a really, really long plane ride away. And I know it's going to be an unimaginably awesome experience, but I can't help worrying about what exactly it's going to be like. Will I be able to communicate effectively? Will I make friends? Will I stick out like a true American? Will the way I dress and purport myself scream "pickpocket me"?? Will I ever get used to using vos instead of tu?????

Some of those really shouldn't be things that keep my up worrying at night-- don't worry, none of those actually do keep me from sleeping-- but I can't help worrying about them in the back of my mind.

Anyway, this is all distracting me from the main point of this post. When I leave in July this blog will turn into a bit of a travel blog. I hope to upload photos and stories of my travels, and hopefully I'll have more time to update regularly.

In the meantime, look for posts about projects and adventures around home. I hope you all are starting the summer off right!