Today was the day. The day for me to start this new journey, this new experience. Leaving was hard this morning, and it hit me when the plane was taking off. All these emotions - nervousness, excitement, anxiousness - it was all new to me all at once and I didn't know how to respond. The flight was long and I slept uncomfortably, but landing was a beautiful sight. I can't even explain it and photos don't do justice. There were mountains that poked through the clouds and everything was so lush and so green. It was beautiful! I'll attach a picture to this post, but the photo doesn't do any justice. Once I landed, I was nervous to go through customs alone, but made it through. Had to wait 2.5 hours for other students to arrive, and met some people within my program during the process. Met three girls (from Kentucky, South Dakota, and Texas) who share common interests with me and don't really care to go out and party/drink (I was afraid that I wouldn't meet too many people like that so I'm thankful to have met them). After that, we were dropped off at the university, and our host families met us there. My roommate (another American student from Washington) and my host mom met me there. One great advantage is that the host house is literally a two minute walk to the campus! It was wonderful. My host mom is very nice and she is very patient and we carried on a good conversation in Spanish, which was nice because I could communicate with her and understood majority of what she said. We had dinner (tortillas con queso, homemade guacamole and salsa, and a fresh garden salad) and then I took my first cold shower - that is DEFINITELY something I'm going to have to get used to. Not sure if that will be an everyday thing or what. I've got a busy day of orientations tomorrow so I should probably get some sleep - we are an hour behind the Eastern time zone - so it is currently 9:27pm and back home it's 10:27pm. I have to be up at 8:30am.
I would be lying if I didn't say that this new experience today has messed with my emotions today. I've laughed, cried, and worried more in one day than ever before. But it's going to be okay! I know it is just the shock of everything at once and I know everything will work itself out and in a few days, I will be quickly getting used to this new place. I already was able to communicate with my host mom in mostly Spanish - something I didn't think I would be good at. Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me!
I would be lying if I didn't say that this new experience today has messed with my emotions today. I've laughed, cried, and worried more in one day than ever before. But it's going to be okay! I know it is just the shock of everything at once and I know everything will work itself out and in a few days, I will be quickly getting used to this new place. I already was able to communicate with my host mom in mostly Spanish - something I didn't think I would be good at. Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me!