Titles, Packing and Kitty Cats

     I had the hardest time deciding what to name my blog.  The domain name I wanted was "adventureisoutthere".  Up is one of the saddest, most heartbreaking movies that Disney has ever created, but what I love about that movie is the fearlessness, fun and imagination that Ellie and Carl teach kids about.  Their catch phrase is: "Adventure is out there!"  They spend their entire lives together, having so many wonderful adventures.  However, they spent it without ever going on that one big adventure to Paradise Falls, putting it off again and again until "tomorrow".
     I have lived my entire life in a town with a population of 14,000. It's 17.5 square miles.  Everyone knows everything about everyone.  It's your typical New England colonial suburban town.

Cute, right? This is where all the little farmers would bring their animals to graze in the olden days.

     I've always wanted to travel, to explore what the world outside this tiny town has to offer!  I have always been so afraid to leave the comfort of my comfortable small town with its white picket fences and cows.  I don't want to be Carl and look back on my life, realizing that "tomorrow" never came.  That specific domain was taken so I added a "somewhere"to it. I mean, adventure is out there!...somewhere. I don't know where, but I'm going to find out!  

     For those of you who are reading this and thinking, "What on earth is this chick talking about?": I leave Monday evening from Boston for Barcelona, Spain.  I'm studying cross-cultural psychology and intermediate Spanish at Barcelona International College for the month of June.
     My friend Brianne from school is going with me, but she is in different classes than I am and is doing a homestay.  She'll be staying with a couple and their two children about four blocks from me.  I received my housing information today.  I'm staying in an apartment for international students, about a block from campus.  There are two single rooms and three double rooms.  I have no idea who my roommates will be.  I looked up the address on Google and from the "street view" it is a large wooden door, in between two grafiti-covered metal grates of neighboring stores.  That did absolutely nothing to calm my nerves.

     I'm extremely nervous.  I've never lived on my own (I live at home and commute to college), or travelled out of the country, let alone travelled out of the country by myself!  What you should know about me is that I'm a homebody.  When given the option, I would much rather curl up and watch a movie or read a book, rather than go out.  I'm a fairly outgoing person, but I'm shy when first meeting people for the most part.  I was one of those children who took the "never talk to strangers" rule extremely seriously.  I refuse to sit next to strangers in a movie theater.  So basically I am going to travel nearly 4,000 miles overseas to a country I've never been to, to live with people I have never met, to attend classes at a school I've never seen before, for an entire month... Sounds like a heap of fun!  Eeeep! :O

     I have classes Mon-Thurs from 9:30 to 12:30, and then 1:30-4:30.  

Gross, right? 6 hours trapped inside, 4 days a week.

But I have Fridays off!  Hooray!    We're looking into taking the train to Paris one weekend and we also have a nine hour layover in London on the return flight(s).  The layover doesn't exactly give us the most amount of time to explore, but we figure we will at least get to see a few landmarks and buy some souvenirs.  These prospects I find exciting and also the thought of exploring the city, its culture, food, languages and shopping (duh).  That's the fun part; it's everything else that frightens me.  

     I'm a worrier.  I worry, a lot.  I don't do well with change and while I am not a control freak, I sometimes have trouble letting things just happen on their own.  I feel a certain amount of security in things being within my control.  Currently my biggest worry is that I'll come home to find that a friend has changed into a completely different person.  I have nightmares about this kind of stuff.  However, tomorrow my worries will probably be about euros and money, or doing laundry while I'm over there.  It's constantly changing.
     I like packing.  Is that strange?  I find it soothing and kind of fun, to be honest.  I've been packing for about two weeks now, just little things here and there. I haven't gotten very far though because so many of the things I need to pack are things that I currently use day to day.  I suppose that is a good sign though because it means I'm only going to pack what I really need and use in actual life.

     I realized the other day that while I will miss my family and friends, I'm really going to miss my two cats the most!  That may make me a "crazy cat lady" but it's strange when you aren't woken up every morning by meowing or you don't see a little tail twitching behind the curtains.

Mina (short for "Miniature") and Tedy (as in Tedy Bruschi)  - How can you not miss those faces for an entire month??

     Sorry this post was so long.  I didn't intend for it to be this long!  It just occurred to me that I just started a blog and I have a Facebook, two Tumblrs, Twitter, Instagram, handwritten journal and I have to blog for the program I am going through.  I must admit, this is the one I am most excited for though. :) I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and bear with me through these next few weeks!  I promise less ramblings, more pictures and lots of adventures!