Good day, anyone reading!
Yesterday (well, still today for me) marks the final week of my 244-month marathon of living in the United States. Talk about exciting! Let me be the first to tell you, it has been rough. There were times when I was certain that I wasn't going to make it. After all, there is only so much good ol' Southern charm and general American tomfoolery that one can stand before the sharp desire to expatriate sets in.
All joking aside, I figure the first post of this blog should do a bit of explaining. (I presume anybody that follows this blog will already know the situation, and for those that do, humor me here.)
My name is Seth Ancil Allen. I am a Spanish major at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, with a minor in Secondary Education. Consider me a Peggy Hill, but a bit more masculine (only slightly so). My plans to study abroad in college began in high school, and through a five-semester long ordeal of planning, I find myself headed to glorious Spain in just six days.
In order to document this trip, I will keep this blog well-stocked with posts, pictures, and musings about my activities abroad. Maybe I'm doing this for posterity, for the sake of invoking nostalgia in the future version of myself; or, maybe I just feel like the adventures of an awkward guy in a country whose language he barely speaks will make for a good read. Maybe a little bit of both.
This blog will probably not be updated daily. After all, who really wants to read:
--02/17/2012, 8:08pm ... Oh man, I totally almost got hit by a bus today. I hate buses LOL!
--02/17/2012, 8:14pm ... So I was sitting on a park bench and I saw this dog. I couldn't help but wonder if the dog spoke Spanish or English.
--02/17/2012, 8:21pm ... Okay, so I'm pretty sure the dog doesn't speak English...
Instead, posts will probably come every few days or so. Yeah, is that vague enough for you?
So, now that all of the formalities are out of the way, how about a recap of what I've been doing? As I said before, today was exactly 7 days before I leave. How did I spend it? I woke up, drove to a cell phone store to play with all the Droids I can't afford (apparently they weren't the droids I was looking for), took my mom out to a Mexican restaurant, did some laundry, did some shopping, watched a movie with my mom, got on Tumblr, checked my Facebook, read the news. In essence: the same things I do every day. The same things I'll likely do every day until the final day when I step on a plane. It's a little bit strange to look only a week ahead, and to know how much my life is going to change in only a few hundred hours. And how am I preparing for it? By doing what I always do, every day, like it isn't even going to happen.
I've always been one to face nervousness only when absolutely necessary (that is, when whatever is making me nervous is already happening). Nevertheless I'll admit to experiencing pangs of sadness at unexpected intervals as the departure day draws nearer. The people I'll miss, the people I'll meet, and all of those other melodramatic cliches associated with traveling, swirl around and cause all sorts of trouble in my head.
That is, until it comes time to do something else--like go out to eat with my dad, or call to confirm my flight reservations, or pick out which clothes are going in my suitcase and which are waiting in storage for five months. Or, until I have to go to bed, which, coincidentally, I have to do now.
Until next time,
Seth Ancil Allen
Yesterday (well, still today for me) marks the final week of my 244-month marathon of living in the United States. Talk about exciting! Let me be the first to tell you, it has been rough. There were times when I was certain that I wasn't going to make it. After all, there is only so much good ol' Southern charm and general American tomfoolery that one can stand before the sharp desire to expatriate sets in.
All joking aside, I figure the first post of this blog should do a bit of explaining. (I presume anybody that follows this blog will already know the situation, and for those that do, humor me here.)
My name is Seth Ancil Allen. I am a Spanish major at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, with a minor in Secondary Education. Consider me a Peggy Hill, but a bit more masculine (only slightly so). My plans to study abroad in college began in high school, and through a five-semester long ordeal of planning, I find myself headed to glorious Spain in just six days.
In order to document this trip, I will keep this blog well-stocked with posts, pictures, and musings about my activities abroad. Maybe I'm doing this for posterity, for the sake of invoking nostalgia in the future version of myself; or, maybe I just feel like the adventures of an awkward guy in a country whose language he barely speaks will make for a good read. Maybe a little bit of both.
This blog will probably not be updated daily. After all, who really wants to read:
--02/17/2012, 8:08pm ... Oh man, I totally almost got hit by a bus today. I hate buses LOL!
--02/17/2012, 8:14pm ... So I was sitting on a park bench and I saw this dog. I couldn't help but wonder if the dog spoke Spanish or English.
--02/17/2012, 8:21pm ... Okay, so I'm pretty sure the dog doesn't speak English...
Instead, posts will probably come every few days or so. Yeah, is that vague enough for you?
So, now that all of the formalities are out of the way, how about a recap of what I've been doing? As I said before, today was exactly 7 days before I leave. How did I spend it? I woke up, drove to a cell phone store to play with all the Droids I can't afford (apparently they weren't the droids I was looking for), took my mom out to a Mexican restaurant, did some laundry, did some shopping, watched a movie with my mom, got on Tumblr, checked my Facebook, read the news. In essence: the same things I do every day. The same things I'll likely do every day until the final day when I step on a plane. It's a little bit strange to look only a week ahead, and to know how much my life is going to change in only a few hundred hours. And how am I preparing for it? By doing what I always do, every day, like it isn't even going to happen.
I've always been one to face nervousness only when absolutely necessary (that is, when whatever is making me nervous is already happening). Nevertheless I'll admit to experiencing pangs of sadness at unexpected intervals as the departure day draws nearer. The people I'll miss, the people I'll meet, and all of those other melodramatic cliches associated with traveling, swirl around and cause all sorts of trouble in my head.
That is, until it comes time to do something else--like go out to eat with my dad, or call to confirm my flight reservations, or pick out which clothes are going in my suitcase and which are waiting in storage for five months. Or, until I have to go to bed, which, coincidentally, I have to do now.
Until next time,
Seth Ancil Allen
read them all. I enjoy your style. Dan Mc
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