1: Preparing to prepare

1/12/2011

Technically it is January 13, it being exactly 3:34 am, but my days don't tend to end until I'm asleep, and I don't do much of that during the early morning hours.  And since the trip of my life is quickly approaching, and Portugal can't seem to stay away from thought or conversation for more than about half a day at most, I figure its probably okay to begin this Portugal blog.

Unlike my other attempts at keeping a blog (which have all miserably failed), I vow to keep this one up as often as possible.  I want to  remember every minute of this trip because I hope it will be, at least, extraordinary and, at most, life-changing.  I can't wait to go to another country, have the inevitable melt-down a few days in, and then get out there and meet new people and have a fantastic adventure.  That's the plan, anyway.  Of course, I still have to get my visa squared away, which is difficult to do when the FBI takes 12 weeks to process a request for a background check.  Of course, this warrants several questions, like WHY it take the FBI this long to print and mail a background check, WHY Portugal requires a background check from the FBI, and WHY they (meaning the staff of both Brown University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison) did not tell us to request such a background check until three months before our trip (roughly).  But what's done is done.  The timing is simply nerve-wracking.

The other two participants seem equally distressed by the visa process.  They also both seem very  nice, though I have not met either of them in person.  The first is currently in France during her first study abroad term.  From what I can tell by our Facebook interactions, she seems very fun, as does the second, who lives in Vermont.  The latter and I are flying to Lisbon and then boarding a train to Coimbra together, for which I'm extremely thankful.  I would be TERRIFIED to go alone, especially as my grasp of the Portuguese language is NOWHERE near what I wished it would be when I decided to study abroad in Portugal three years ago.  But I've been trying to review (half-heartedly, I must confess) and my mom is bringing down my godmother's copy of Rosetta Stone this weekend, so that should be somewhat helpful.  But I think we, meaning myself and the other two girls in the Coimbra program, are all in the same boat language-wise, or at least, they are both very modest about their language abilities (and will hopefully be understanding of my deficiencies in the future).  At least I can tell from their  names that we are all going to Portugal for the same reason: we're all Portuguese.

I can't tell if I'm excited to go anymore.  I feel like I've been talking about it forever: not only studying abroad there, but the country, BEING Portuguese, the language, defending Portugal against people who say its an old and forgotten country (even though it sometimes is...)  All I ever do is talk about Portugal and I'm sick of it!  Hopefully that will change once I'm there.  It really is, as I remember it, a beautiful and enchanting place.  My parents bought me two tour books, one for Portugal and one entitled "The Best of Europe," which does not mention Portugal at all (awkward).  I'll begin to read those books soon.  I need to start making plans.  I already feel like I need to start packing!

That's going to be the tough part of leaving.  I'm a bit of a hoarder, and the whole "pack what you think you'll need and then take half of that" rule is going to be rough.  My mom keeps reminding me that I can buy all that I need there, but it seems a waste of familiarity and Euros.  Plus, how does one say "hair drier" or "contact lens fluid" in Portuguese?  I guess I'll learn these things soon.  I wish they had easy books with titles like, "Vocabulary You Will Realistically Use in Portugal."  That would make life so easy!  Instead I'll just have to tell my family there, “Não obrigada.  Não posso comer alguma comida com leite" (No thanks.  I can't eat anything with milk.)

I think I've become lactose intolerant, which is goin to make studying abroad tough.  Not only is the food pretty heavily invested in dairy, but if I AM indeed lactose intolerant (which a soon-to-be-determined doctor's appointment will hopefully make clear), I'll have to learn how to eat in a whole new way in a whole new place, which seems to compliment each other in theory but probably doesn't in real life.  Plus that's just more that I have to stuff into my already bursting suitcase: lactaid pills.  I guess we'll see soon if I'm just a hypocondriac or not.

I guess I've laid down a pretty good foundation for this blog with this one post... Sorry if it seems rather boring (I mean, I DID just talk about possible lactose intolerance for an entire paragraph).  I guess I'm just extremely nervous.  Actually, scratch that, I'm terrified to get on that plane on February 2nd.  I won't know the language, the people, the country.  Plus, everyone is going to ask me if I'm Chinese (as they did the entire time I was there in 2008)!  I hope I'll make good friends not only with the people in my program but with students at Coimbra.  I hope I'll meet guys, though its hard to look forward to a hoard of unknown, Portuguese-speaking men... no matter how attractive they might be.  

But I really do think I'm ready for this.  I am so ready to get away from home, to get away from Brown, and just have an amazing experience.  I'm not asking for a movie plot or anything, but I haven't heard of one study abroad experience that hasn't included crazy events and wonderful happenings.  I hope I never want to leave.

Portugal, you better live up to these high expectations.