One Month (Just About) to Takeoff. Here's What I'm Doing and How I'm Feeling.

My one-way flight to Madrid takes off on September 4. When I woke up this morning and my eyes caught August 1 on my planner, things suddenly felt real. *This* is happening next month. I am moving to a country I studied for years but have never been to before. I am doing the *thing* just like the rest of my peers are doing--the thing I would be doing in mid-September anyway: finding an apartment, starting my job post-grad... just, you know, in a foreign country. What?

Yeah, it's happening. So here is what I am doing in these next four weeks to prepare myself for this reality:

• Finishing up a self-study TESOL course (that's a need-to-know acronym for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. There are many similar acronyms in the field, but this is the most widely-known) online which involves lots of reading and many notes that should help me feel more like a legitimate teacher

• Binge-reading the newest-published Fulbright Online Guide to learn as much as I can about my region, my city, and how to do all of the things one needs to do before and upon arrival

• Contacting as many recommended landlords as possible, becoming slave to endlessly scrolling through Airbnb, Idealista, and Fotocasa for piso (apartment/flat) options, and teaching myself that WhatsApp is normal, not weird, actually somewhat superior

• Using my impulsively-purchased subscription to Babbel to soak in one to two lessons of its "Words and Sentences" course (extremely helpful to assuage some of my strange vocabulary gaps)

• Drafting up lists of questions for past grantees and for my main contact at my school (who I already know is incredibly friendly and ready to answer all of them) such as...when do I arrive on the first day? Which is the wrong door? Are loafers too much or too little? Help?

• Tutoring an incoming fourth-grade child in English, Writing, and Reading

• Continuing to whip up ostentatious (yet objectively delicious) smoothies and baked goods at the cafe I've been working at this summer

• Going to bed as early as possible, even though I recognize that will not be a priority in four weeks since my work-night bedtime will probably become my dinnertime

• Avoiding the urge to pack too soon

• Attempting to avoid over-planning or prematurely committing to a piso or other important decision before I arrive (this means filling the time with reading, running, calling a bunch of friends, and booking a last-minute ticket to my old roommate's iconic Lobster Bake instead)

• Trying to get all of my other ducks in a row

• Thinking a lot

• Hoping to make writing (in this format) a routine

And

• Feeling so, so wonderfully grateful.

So, okay, let's do this thing! More explanation on the name of this blog (unless I decide to change it before I get to that. Ja ja!) and more fun to come.

Un beso,

Ellie