(Most of you probably already know me and about my trip/plans, but for those who don’t, here is a short description written in the fancier third person style.)
Having been born, raised, and in the throngs her early adult life all within a perameter of about 60 miles, in So. Cal, it can be said that Andrea D. is thoroughly a California girl (Sometimes even to the point of wearing thong sandals to work.) She is in her early twenties, and is a semi-recent University of California graduate (2007) with a degree in English. After spending a year working in an office and saving money, Andrea is finally ready to start traveling and see what the world outside So Cal might hold for her.
After many months of searching for different opportunities, she decided to fulfill a long held ambition: to learn Spanish. Deciding the most effective (and perhaps most enjoyable) means of doing this was to just move to Spain and study, Andrea learned about becoming an au pair and set out to find a family.
In Barcelona, Andrea will be living for the next year with a family as an au pair, and teaching English to two lovely girls ages 10 and 11. She will be taking Spanish classes in down town Barcelona every morning, and will (we can only hope) be having the time of her life.
Spain is amazing! You’re going to love it! You’ll miss California, but not in such a way that it holds you back. I read what you said about needing to get out there and understood exactly what you meant. It’s what led me to study abroad in Spain in Summer 2006, and it’s what led me here, to Buffalo NY where I just started a Ph.D. program in linguistics. I’m so glad I listened to the unrelenting curiousity and restlessness; at every turn I am humbled and awed at how prefectly things seem to be unfolding around me, as if I couldn’t have planned it better.
In short, I feel happy and exicited for you and your new start, and the people, places, and challenges that will give you a sense of completeness. I also know we both left some impossible situations back in SoCal, and what a joy it is to move on! You will learn new aspects to yourself in a new situation, good parts that never got to come out where you were. It’s not done in a spirit of escape, and we’re not abandoning anyone. It’s about not being able to ignore the sense that you feel like there are untested abilities and things to accomplish and a conviction that you have things to give the world.
I also hope you get to travel outside of Barcelona and see all the rest of what Spain has to offer, even though Barcelona is amazing.
Anyway, Bon Voyage! I wish you the best!