The Beginning

"The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' he asked.
'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'"
-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

This is the beginning, a new chapter. I have finished IB, graduated high school, and had an incredible summer full of new experiences. Today, I leave for Madrid, Spain!

I have deferred my acceptance to NYU Global Liberal Studies for one year. During that time, I will be living in Madrid with a host family and studying Spanish grammar and culture at la Universidad de Alcalá Henares. As is the deal with my host family, I will be speaking English for three hours with their children every weekday. On the weekends, I will have time to study, travel, and experience Spain and Europe. I'll be coming back to my family in the States for 'winter break' from December 10th to January 7th. For the rest of the year - the end of September to the end of May - my home will be Madrid, Spain.

I am excited beyond anything words could express. I can't wait to board the plane. I've been planning all my travels in the next few years, and I can't believe how lucky I am, to be able to make the world mine. My desire to see new people, learn new languages, and absorb new cultures is boundless. My dream is to be as big as the world.

I'm also way, way scared. It isn't my first time traveling around the world or traveling alone. I have been traveling since I was six, when my family and I first came to the US from Italy, where I was born. I've been to distant places, I've been in situations where I could not contact my parents for a few weeks.

Yet, this is my first time being almost completely independent. This is my first time packing up my room and going to a place foreign to me for months on end. This is my first time going to a country where I do not know the language. I went to Mali, West Africa two years ago, and even there, I had a group of students with whom I could talk in English. I had translators who could help me express myself in Bambara, the village's dialect. But I don't speak Spanish. I've only ever studied French throughout school; I've never taken a Spanish class. I speak Italian, which will help me, but I couldn't hold any sort of conversation in Spanish past the "hello, how are you, my names is..." part.

I'm sure it isn't as scary as I'm imagining it. I'm sure that as soon as I get over the culture shock, I will be as comfortable as can be. Once I realize that I can find the words to make my way around the country, I'll be okay. I am reassured by the thought that I'm going to Europe, and, what's more, to a place that is close to Italy, which I know well. I'm not going to a country where the culture is the opposite of mine.

But beyond fears, I am ready to go. I have a huge list of things to buy and things to remember and things to pack, but I am ready to begin my studies and my travels.

A little bit more about me: I love to learn. I'm extremely energetic. I love to travel, to learn languages, to read, to write, to volunteer, to meet new people, to converse, to listen to music and sing loudly off-key, and to dream. I love sunflowers, balconies, the ocean, exclamation points (I get made fun of constantly by my friends about how many exclamation points I use), and being around children. I love poetry above all things, besides my family and my friends.

I also have never actually kept up a serious blog before, so excuse my sounding so conceited - I usually dislike writing about myself. I just want to give you a picture of me before I start blogging about Spain!

I also have a plan for the next five years, which I know it sounds crazy, but just listen for a second. I have it all loosely figured out, mostly because of the requirements and rigidity of my program at NYU. I know I'm about to sound like an NYU pamphlet, but bear with me - I ADORE my program and NYU in general. The Global Liberal Studies program is one in which students take specific classes each year and study the cultures of the world, including their literature, politics, history, philosophy, and more. The program is rooted in sending students abroad junior year, after they intensively learn a language their sophomore year, so as to immerse themselves in both the language and the culture of the country, thus truly becoming one with its people. Also, the students all pick a region in the world and study, in-depth, its history, culture, politics, etc. Basically, this is the best program in the world.

So anyway, as for my plan: this year, I'm spending a gap year in Spain. The year after, I'm going to be a freshman at NYU... in Paris! (The Global Liberal Studies program in which I'm enrolled allows students to go abroad their freshman year.) My sophomore year, I'll be in New York, and my junior year, as my program requires, I'll study abroad once more - I'm thinking of learning Chinese and going to China, but that could change and I have plenty of time to decide thankfully. Then, as a senior, I'll live in New York and become part of the class of 2015. After that, I would love going to the Peace Corps for two years, but we'll see where life takes me.

In any case, the point of this blog is to write about these next few years. It's mostly for my family to know what I've been doing (phone calls won't be enough to cover everything!), but you're welcome to keep up with my  adventures! I'm a bit of an over-talker and over-writer, meaning I could go on for days talking and writing about what I've seen and thought and learned and read, so please bear with me!

I'd love comments on where to go and things to do, for people who have been to these countries before. I've never been to Spain, Paris, or China, for starters, so I'll let you know what my first impressions are. Or if you just want to give me general feedback on what I said, please go ahead! Respond to what you'd like, tell me about your own travels, give me titles of books and poetry to read, or movies to watch.

Finally, here is where everything starts, the beginning of this coming year. At the end of the year, everything will come to an end, and a new year, a new chapter, will begin. Since this is not the first chapter of my life, as I've had many, many others previous to this one, and since, in my mind, every passing year is a chapter, I'll call this Chapter 18.

So, welcome to Chapter 18!

I'm including a picture of a beautiful Plaza near my host family's house called Plaza de Castilla. The two buildings you see in the picture are really cool, I can't wait to actually see them.

I'm so excited!

:)