Ten Days Till Moving to Spain

I’ve taken to yelling “Vivo para España!” quite frequently. When I am with my friends, when I’m making my way out of a baseball game, when I get so confronted with my anxiety and I need to just yell it. Because that’s what’s up. “I live for Spain.”

And why am I yelling this? Because I’m moving to Spain in ten days. What started off as a random leap in the dark applying for a teaching program through the Spanish Government has actually taken root. Like, it’s happening. The program is called Auxiliare de Conversación, and it is a teaching assistant program working with teachers at a school/s to bring the English language into the classroom. I am working with elementary age students in Arnedo, La Rioja, Spain. Which also happens to be the top wine-producing region in Spain with some really fantastic looking bodegas.

Three days ago I had my last day at a job that I have worked for over two years. When I told them I was leaving, it went far better than I could have hoped for. There was love, there was support, there were jokes, and excitement, and some well-placed sadness. A girl can’t ask for much more.

As my departure date approaches, I’ve been dealing with things in a different sort of way. I am getting excited. For a very long time it was a matter of figuring it all out. Making sure I could afford to do this, that I was okay with leaving my job, that I felt confident moving solo to a different part of the world in which I do not confidently claim fluency in the language. I haven’t taught, I haven’t faced down these fears in four years (studies abroad in Plymouth England). I don’t even have a place to live yet.

While I’m sad to be leaving, I also have never felt more ready for this leap because of the amazinngggg amount of love and support I have experienced these past few weeks. #blessed

I will be capturing stories, photos, and the culture shock through this blog over the next year. Please follow along with what I’m sure will be a combination of mistakes, hilarity, lots of wine drinking, and misadventures. Please feel free to also share your own!

Now to packing and drawing up contracts for those that want to raid my closet while I’m gone.

Vivo para España!

*Disclaimer: I don’t speak Spanish quite yet, so whatever I’m writing in Spanish is courtesy of Google Translator and my imagination…