And now the time has come, my friends, to talk of many things…

Barcelona is waiting for me. It’s been pulling me towards it like a long lost friend for about nine months now; living, bustling, thriving in the back of my mind. I don’t know why it was Barcelona that decided to curl up in my brain and take up residence, but I’ve been wanting (or needing, rather) to travel and live abroad for a long time now, years I’d say. I started actually turning this need/ want into action last December, where I sat alone in my apartment the morning after the Christmas party my roommates and I had thrown. After all the noise, and bustle, and laughter of the party had died down, after our overnight guests had woken up and waved goodbye, and after my roommates had helped me clean up a bit and then left themselves, I sat alone feeling empty. Empty and knowing that I was ready to find a way to fill myself up. And so, my friends, I did what any 23-year-old child of the new millennium would do: I began searching the web. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I was thorough and I was determined. I looked high and low: at grad school programs, at teaching abroad programs, at blogs about living abroad, at information site after information site dedicated to travel. I tried, to the best of my web searching abilities with all of my twenty-first century heart, to leave no stone unturned, no website of interest unread.

If I had started that search with only an inkling of needing travel, I ended it with a feeling of absolute certitude. Just imaging myself abroad began to fill up my empty spots and make my fingers tingle. I no longer had a choice: this was where my life was going. I wasn’t sure exactly where, or how, and, to tell you the truth, after months of research and looking for options, I can’t even remember how Barcelona became my goal, but I knew I was going to head out into the world.

And so, here I am now, sitting in a Huntington Beach Starbucks, just two weeks away from my departure. I wanted to start this blog for a few different reasons: to keep my family and friends up to date, to keep myself writing, to have a recorded account of my travels  (you know, the usual reasons). I will write a couple more entries before I leave, and then try to update it weekly while I’m in BCN. I can’t tell you how excited I am to get going, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with all who read.

Side notes:

-I will be posting pictures soon! (I have nothing to do with the ones that show up now on the side bar).

-The picture on the top of this page has nothing to do with Barcelona. It’s just one of my favorite pictures I took in Seattle, and I didn’t want to post a picture that wasn’t mine, you know, in case of copy right and such.

-Please feel free to comment and share this page, even if I don’t know you. Thanks!