PERI: Getting ready to GO!!!

            Hola!  My name is Peri, I am a junior Psychology major here at Lewis-Clark State College.  I am spending this Fall 2010 semester in Barcelona, Spain at Pompeu Fabra University.  Mitzi is my roommate, we are so excited to be spending this time abroad together!  (Well kind of together, we will be about 600 miles apart at our respective universities).  We started the application process in December, after we picked the university and program that would work best for us.  I chose the Barcelona program because I wanted to experience the big city: Barcelona is one of the most modern and progressive cities in Spain.  Pompeu Fabra University (or UPF) is a small university, not much bigger than LC, which is perfect for me because I think that personal interaction at the collegiate level is very important.  I chose to live in a home-stay while abroad.  I know that the family that I will live with is headed by Señora Josefa Muñoz, a potter, her son and her grandson.  Her pottery shop is on the main floor of the flat, along with the kitchen, and the bedrooms are located on the second floor.

            I am 2 days from my departure date.  It was a long process to get to this point, mountains of paperwork completed: scholarships, applications, personal information, preferences, the list goes on…  At the end of the road though, now that its all done, it wasn’t that bad.  Staying on top of which paper goes to who and when was the most difficult part but file folders and a calendar kept it manageable.  Since we began, we’ve had many questions come and go: how will we communicate back home? how will we find our way around Europe? how much spending money will we need? etc., etc.  With help from contacts at LCSC and ISA a little patience, all (or at least most) of our questions have been answered.

Mitzi and I are required to be in Madrid, Spain on a specified date for our program orientation, but we want to take advantage of our time abroad and see as many countries as possible.  We found it much cheaper (about one-third the price of flying to Madrid) to fly into Dublin, Ireland, so we are flying from the US to Dublin about ten days before our orientation starts.  After a couple of days in Dublin we will take a jumper plane to Paris, then another on to Madrid.  I am a little nervous because Mitzi’s program starts 3 days before mine, so I am going to be on my own for about 2 and a half days (ah!!!).  Luckily, after I received the ‘student’ list from ISA, I sent out an email asking if others will be in Madrid early, and a few have responded that they will. 

So now, less than 48 hours before my departure, my bags are packed (just about), and I am as mentally prepared as I am ever going to be.  I am very excited for this adventure, but am sad about leaving my parents, friends, and fiancé as well.  I will do my best to keep this blog up to speed, I hope you find it helpful and fun!  Buen viaje!