Conectando Vidas, Compartiendo Culturas

I have been staring at this blank blogger page for the past week and a half. I guess it is true what they say about blogging, it only gets harder and harder as the time goes on. But that is no excuse, because I know in the end I will be so glad that I will be able to look back on all of these great moments.

Now for one of my many highlights of October, the AFS orientation.

Almost all of the girls! (From Iceland, Germany, California,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Hungary,
Switzerland, Denmark, France, China, and more!)

I wish I could get across the extent of what a great weekend it was, but it was beyond anything that I could ever express in a blog post. Sitting at a dinner table with friends from all over the world, all with the same mentality, the same final goal in mind, it was incredible. We all were there to learn a new culture, to experience new things. And while we all came from different countries, different lifestyles, we are all united. And that bond will last forever. We are all sacrificing so much to be where we are, and everyday while every moment is so worth it, every moment is a struggle. And to know that I have 90 other people who understand exactly what I'm going through, people that will be there for me from the beginning to the end. That gives me all the hope and willingness to persevere. 

Esther and Paige finishing of my goldfish on the train

The four Valladolid kids (Paige, Esther, Clement, and I) boarded the train around 6, and were in Ponferrada by 10. We were picked up at the train station by a volunteer and taken to the camp site. It was a closed off site with about twenty cabins. When the Valladolid kids finally got settled in, we went in search of our friends from surrounding cities and provinces. This orientation was for the kids in Asturias, Galicia, and Castilla y Leon. We swung a door open to find all 30 of our friends crammed in one room talking and listening to music. That was such a great moment, the friends we had left at the train station just two short months before, were now sitting right in front of us. I was latched on to Amy for at least 20 minutes, oh how I missed these people! And of course since we had to catch up with every single person there, we didn't end up going to sleep until 5am. 

Luca (Hungarian) and I

Milena, Lani, Paige, Esther, Luca, and I

Clement (Belgian) and I

We were woken up around 9, and we all headed to breakfast. Of course every meal that was prepared was delicious... because we are in Spain! After that we did a series of activities that would help us evaluate our individual experiences thus far. We drew our own emotional curve, and I was surprised that once I had thought about it, my lowest points had been in the beginning, and I was now on an extreme up rise! Then there was another activity where we had a few sentence starters (ex. I want..., I need..., I hope...) and we had to finish them. Here are a few examples of my final sentences.

I want... JAMON (Ham).

I need... to stop skyping my family and friends so much.

I hope... I will be fluent in Spanish by the end.

Martha and I writing our letters

And then after another very late night, we woke up Sunday morning for one last activity. An activity where we had to write a letter to our future selves, one that we will receive at the end of our ten months. I began my letter (Dear Megg...) and after that I just stared at the blank page for a while. How do you even begin to explain what you've been through, what you hope everything turns out to be like, and how you think you will be effected as a person in the end. For me, that was the hardest part of the entire weekend. I guess you can say I'm scared. Scared of the future, I guess we all are. But to know that my new self, a better version of myself awaits, and will be found within the next eight months. It is all exciting, terrifying, and overall just emotional. In the end, I sealed the envelope with a textbook inside. once I started writing, I couldn't stop!

I guess the future awaits for all of us. Time goes on for all of us. We just have to remember to take advantage of the time we have in the present, to make sure that the future becomes all that we've hoped it will be. 

And enjoying the present is exactly what we did that weekend, I love my AFS friends from all around the world, individually they have each taught me so much, and as a whole they have helped me get through the hardest of times. Because "connecting lives by sharing cultures" is what AFS stands for.

my sassy best friends, love you guys!

I got to see Aitor again, miss you already!