A One a.m. Post

It's one in the morning and we're halfway through Christmas break so of course my teacher/nanny sleep schedule is totally out of whack. I mean, I'm usually struggling to stay awake till 10, which makes this a solid 3 hours later than my normal bed time. After going through the motions of Facebook stalking, reorganizing my Pinterest boards, and re-reading all of our old (yea, I said it: OLD) posts on here, I decided to do something useful: write a horribly rambling post about how being awake at 1 a.m. sucks. There is absolutely nothing good on TV at this point, no one with any semblance of a life is awake, and it's exceedingly difficult to clean the house silently (I'm THAT bored). 

So what does one do when they cannot sleep? Is this when I'm supposed to drink a glass of warm milk? Because frankly I'm not sure that works and it sounds disgusting. 

Clearly just laying here with my own thoughts isn't particularly helpful either. 

However as I typed that last sentence, miracle of miracles, I yawned! Woot!! ...actually that might be terribly depressing that my own blog post is putting me to sleep. *sigh* oh well! We need a new post anyway. 😆

Waiting for More

Being a child of the golden age of Disney, I can easily use one animated song or another to accurately describe each moment in my life. Lately, I had been feeling very Rapunzel to the tune of “When Will My Life Begin”. As a nanny I constantly think “I’ll do this with my own children” or “How will I handle that with my kids?” I realized about a month ago that it will be a solid decade before I get anywhere near the same situations with children of my own. The world will be so different then. How can I even compare life now to how life will be then? Then I get all existential and contemplative, realizing that I’m making all these plans for “some day”...

My Pinterest is filled with boards guided by the future. From DIY house tips for the home I’ll eventually buy to crafts I’ll make when I finally have access to a sewing machine to my dream wedding (HA!). I have plans to travel, to write a book, to grow old with my best friends. So much of daily life is dedicated to and dictated by the future that I seem to have forgotten to appreciate and acknowledge daily life.

Yes, my future adventures will be extraordinary and I hope to have someone special with me to experience all that. But for now I need to be happy with my life as it is, in all its mundane repetitiveness. I'm not saying that I should just settle or not look forward to anything. I just need to appreciate all I've been blessed with.

I love my jobs. The Kid is hysterical and his parents are so wonderful to me. I will never be able to fully express my appreciation to them for giving me the opportunity to be part of their family. And teaching…oh Lord. It is a continuous struggle but after the first few months I was so relieved to find that I really did love it. There is an overwhelmingly terrifying feeling when you first break into what you hope will be your career. That wave of “I’ve just spent thousands of dollars I didn’t have to learn how to do this….What if it sucks? What if I suck???” I’m sure you can imagine my immense relief when I realized that I not only loved being in the classroom, but I was good at it. Great doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that I don’t need some grand vacation or whirlwind romance to have an adventurous life. I don’t need to wait for anything. On a daily basis I am responsible for any combination of 3 houses, 3 dogs, 3 cats, and a 10 year old boy. Add teaching high school to the mix and, well, I’m not sure I could handle much more of an adventure.

Home

Warning: This is a longish post with a lot of feelings.

In the past few years, my experience of "home" has changed profoundly. Through high school, as it is for most people, my "home" was my childhood home, where my siblings, my parents, and my dog and I lived together. That was an everyday kind of home; I slept in the same bed every night, I ate at the same table every day, and I knew which switches turned on which lights. When I got to college, UD became home and my family's home became "back home." For four years it didn't matter whether I lived in a dorm or in a house, campus was where I felt the most comfortable. I built a new life there within a community of wonderful people with whom I feel lucky to have been able to grow up. Then when I graduated and Katie and I moved to Columbus together, we built our own haven of a home which means more to me still than I could ever express. Apartment 4G was our safe place and we both dealt with so much in the year that we lived there; even when so many other things were difficult and changing, we still had our home and each other.

Now things are a little different. Being at the point in my life in which so many things are in flux, I'm learning to adapt to the reality of being a constant traveler, not just here in Spain, but everywhere. I don't have a physical location that feels like MY home right now which is a little sad. Since I moved "back home," even though know I know all the light switches, I've felt a bit like a guest overstaying my welcome. I'm so grateful to be able to be there and I know my parents love me, but I feel like I've been a bit slow on figuring some things out and I need to do my own thing in my own space again. I feel welcome at UD for a night but when it's time to go to bed there's nowhere to go and it's evident that I'm an alumni. Here in Spain there's no chance of "settling in," I'm a guest in someone else's home or a tourist everywhere I go. I'm definitely aware of the fact that this is what I signed up for and that learning to be more okay with being uncomfortable is a huge part of this experience, but it still can be a bit exhausting never knowing all the rules and feeling like I'm always imposing.

I'm truly really enjoying myself here and everyday I learn something new even through the hard things, but the lack of a physical home has made me rethink my experience of the word "home." I've always been very invested in my relationships with my friends and my family, (sometimes too much so), and there's nothing like being 3,800 - 12,000 miles away from the people I care about to make me appreciate them. But even more than that, when I don't have a place that's home, I have people who are. When people are your home, it doesn't matter where you are in the world with them or where you're talking to them from, you are completely comfortable in their presence and they make you feel like yourself again. This also means it's much harder to say goodbye to them when the time comes. This feeling is a little hard to explain, but I hope you've all experienced it at least once and know what I'm talking about.

This weekend I was lucky enough to be with two of these people and I think they might have been my 2 favorite days in Spain so far. Katie and I met up in Madrid on Saturday to visit our host brother, Jaime who is studying there. If you know me at all, you've probably heard of Jaime. When we studied abroad in Spain in Summer 2011, (which Katie, Kaitlyn, and I never shut up about), we all stayed with Jaime's family and became just like real blood siblings and also best friends. We all bawled when we had to leave and counted down months and days until the next time we could see each other. It's kind of a magical thing. Out of all the dorms at UD, Katie, Kaitlyn, and I all ended up on the same floor freshman year. Out of all the study abroad trips, we decided on the same one. Out of all the families in Spain, we got to meet Jaime's family, which became like our own immediately. Your "forever" people are special, and you don't meet them very often; that's why it's so amazing to me that one of my forever people was born and raised on the other side of the globe and somehow we were brought together. Katie is another one of my forever people who I've been missing a lot; we live an hour apart here in Spain but have only seen each other twice in a month! (This is ridiculous for us, as we had been used to spending every waking moment possible together when we lived in Columbus.)

There are some trips that you take to see the sights, and some trips you take to see the people and this was definitely a trip in the second category. We walked and talked, shopped and talked, ate and talked, and drank and talked, and that's all we needed. We saw El Rastro, the famous street market in Madrid, and walked for about 10 minutes in El Retiro, the famous park in Madrid and that's about it on the sightseeing list. The most important experience was being with our little brother together and seeing a small glimpse of his life. We laughed until we cried and that's something I don't get to do that often. We speak two languages and we've experienced 2 countries together, which makes for at least twice as many jokes. I didn't want the weekend to end and the train ride back to Ciudad Real was a little emotional. I am so lucky to have days like that, and people like that in my life, even if it's only for a few days out of the year.

It goes without saying that the girls on this blog are also my forever people, my people who are more like home to me than any other physical location on the planet. Because I know what it's like to have their light shine on me and warm me up in person, being near them is something I miss constantly. But every post, every message, every text, every call, brings me a little bit of home. I'm looking forward to having a physical place to call my own again one day, but for now, if I just take comfort in these people, I know I'll have a home for as long we live.

It'll take you four minutes...

...to read the post in the attached link from the Huffington Post. (Although I also recommend taking another eight to watch the video at the end of the post as well.)

The Brain on 23

Most of us contributing to this blog are approximately this age on our life journeys. And not surprisingly we are experiencing some of these very moments, dilemmas, heart breaks, questions, and joys. We take solace in the fact that we have not only have each other to assist us in putting together the puzzle pieces of our individual lives but we also have the thousands of other 23-year-olds in the world as well, not to mention everyone who has ever been older than 23 (thank you for your wisdom and understanding).

Although, in contrast to this article, we definitely aren't 22 anymore [Taylor].

I guess I'll give into peer-pressure and say something finally!

I'm Emily. I strongly believe its in our nature to make life more complicated than it has to be, so I embrace simplicity and enjoy the little things. I believe that happiness is something that we create, and love is the most important thing in this world. 

As for what I am currently up to: 

October is my absolute favorite month, and fall my favorite season, so my life this month can be summed up essentially by two things: work and going outside. I'm a little obsessed with fall foliage, and I may or may not have maxed out the number of pictures I can take on my phone (which I may or may not have learned is close to 1100). I added just two of them.

I live a little outside Cleveland, Ohio with Austin, my boyfriend. I am lucky enough to be with someone who has a heart of gold, and am so thankful for our love (ending sappy writings here). I work at the Cleveland Clinic as a Registered Nurse on a neurology floor. I just came up on my one year anniversary of working as a nurse. While difficult to adjust to in the beginning, I am very content with my work. I feel lucky to have chosen a career that is constantly challenging me and making me grow, as well as giving me the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life every single day.  

I am very lucky to have these 5 ladies in my life. I love everyone so much, and am so proud of the strong and beautiful women they are. I miss all of you! Since my joy in life is so intricately woven with spending time with my loved ones, I am planning on moving back to our hometown by the end of 2015 to be close to my family, and hopefully friends (if there are any left)! :)  I would like to remind them (as if I don't do it enough), that I would be very very happy if everyone would just come back after going out and seeing the world and we could have jolly-good fun together all the time forever! ;) 

2 Weeks

2 weeks down, 11 to go!

It's weird to think that it's already been half the time that I was here before. It's been quite the adventure so far with lots of different kinds of experiences, from trying to fit in to the family dynamic, to figuring out my role in my school, to going out, to giving private English lessons, to having Spanish classes again. 

The most important things I think have been to be flexible, open to anything and everything, and also making sure I have a little time to unwind by myself. I have no idea what's going on half the time, because, hello, everyone is speaking in my non-native language and I miss context clues or I pay attention to the wrong parts of the conversation. It's hard to be 100% tuned-in all of the time; it takes a lot of brain power and then I often still don't understand. I just have to go with the flow, pretend I know what's going on, or *sigh* ask questions, which is embarrassing for me because I don't want to ask a question in terrible Spanish. 

Last weekend for example, I thought we were going out so that my host sister could get a haircut, and we ended up at the cinema to see a 2 hour documentary about the local festivals and traditions. Last night we went to the country at 6ish for what I thought would be a few hours, and we ended up staying for dinner at 10 or 11 and then until about 1:30 in the morning. That's like a full work day where I have to be awake and paying attention and trying to communicate with people who I just met. Although a huge part of this experience is talking to new people, and I have really been enjoying that, my introverted self is more attuned to sitting back and observing what's happening around me and taking notes for later.   

Another aspect that has been a little difficult is not having another (English-speaking) person here to experience it with me. Last time I was here in Spain, I had a shared story with the Katie and Kaitlyn who I lived with and the people I traveled with; it's part of a collective memory and we all remember different parts. This time it's up to me and I don't get to say to a close friend, "Remember when we went to the disco and we danced like crazy people when they played the Spice Girls?" (Unless it happens on the weekend travels with Katie, which I'm looking forward to for the above reasons). There are some things that transcend language and the incredulity or hilarity can be communicated with just a look between my host sisters and I, and those things I really enjoy paying attention to. But I get to be an observer of my host sisters with all their close friends and their inside jokes and shared history, and I know I have that somewhere else in the world, and if they were transplanted here it would be a natural fit. I know I could make close friends here, but it's not quite the same. Now I know that I can do Spain on my own, and it's great, but my next adventure I'd like to share with others. For now I hope the blogging suffices; it's been helpful for me to get down in words what I'm feeling and what I want to remember. 

Wish you all could be here and see this through your own beautiful perspectives.

Siempre,

Emily

It's My Turn

As I peruse these posts, wanting desperately to be experiencing all of these adventures together, I am also reminded of what a glorious world we live in, and what an unparalleled bond we have where we can be all over the world, yet still be together.  I’m currently trying to get acclimated to grad school life in perhaps one of the farthest spots possible, and am awakened to the harsh reality that I did not, in fact, outgrow my shyness (as I had come to believe), but had merely become so attached to, comfortable with, and fulfilled by the friends I already had that my brain merely shut off the instinct (and resulting fear) to seek out new friends at all.  Of the 6 of us, I am definitely not the social butterfly.  In fact, I usually feel like I’m the only one that’s not brimming with that magically magnetic and vivaciously friendly vibe.  I have the occasional ability to play the part, but as an introvert, it is mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting.  I’m not saying I’m not friendly (at least…I hope I am) – it’s just harder to make that initial connection.  I can’t be my crazy self around you until I know you, but I can’t get to know you without putting myself out there…and hence the vicious circle.  Add the whole foreigner aspect, and it's a nightmare.

So in this time of transition, as I figure out what it means to be a PhD student and try to find a sense of social normalcy, I am lucky to still - and always - have such an amazing group, the ability to read about what they’re doing, see their amazing pictures, and then chat about it all face to face over the various internet communication tools we have available.  Though difficult, I’m truly happy to have embarked upon this adventure.  I have yet to feel at home here, but I know this will be a life-changing-for-the-better experience.  

In the words of Robyn Davidson (an extreme adventurer if there ever was one), we get to choose our own adventures, even in the most ordinary of circumstances, and have to "learn to use our fears as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks.”  Growth is all about pushing the limits of your comfort zone.  I’m currently so far out of that zone that I’d like to get it in sight again, but maybe not much more than that.  I'm the last of the six to embark upon a daring adventure of this magnitude, and it's my turn to reach boldly into the unknown.

 

  

 

A quick taste of Christchurch City Center, the Port Hills, and New Brighton Beach (more  pics at www.mypursuitofwonder.wordpress.com).

The Chef Life

About two years ago, I went down to Florida for my first Disney internship. I started as a quick-service sandwich maker and moved on to being a seater/ice cream sundae maker and let me tell you, I rode the struggle bus the whole six months I was here. I went back home, went to culinary school, and felt Disney calling my name again. This time, my attitude is so different. Its amazing how much your attitude can change about a job when you actually love what you are doing.

I currently work as a culinary cast member at The Epcot Food and Wine Festival. I get to cook foods from around the world everyday at work, and I have never been a part of such a huge event before.

Not only am I learning how to cook these foods but I'm also learning how to supply mass quantities quickly, organize myself better, multi-task about 20 things at once and everything that goes into making this festival run. I wake up and want to go to work and I couldn't be happier about that.

I've started talking to my chefs about moving to full time and I just turned in an application for a 15 month lease on a new apartment....yikes! Fingers crossed as I move into this new stage of my life!

Ciudad Un-Real

Ahhhhh!!!! Still can't believe I'm here. Katie and I were talking about how we weren't uncomfortable at all here because it feels like coming home. It's like we stepped right back into our old Spanish life and every tiny cobblestoned street we turned on felt familiar to us somehow. 

Toledo is a beautiful historic city and so we all walked around and got lunch when we arrived. My first Spanish meal was tapas of course! Partridge pâté, beef stew, croquettes, tuna and potato salad, Manchego cheese and ham, and patatas bravas with sangria! 

Then in the evening we met back up with group for dinner at this yummy restaurant with lots of little alcoves to fit us. It felt like we were in a little cave. I had more pâté, croquettes, and cheese, an egg and sausage biscuit, veal and potatoes, and ice cream with wine and sangria again. 

Then we went to the roof of our hotel which had a nice bar area and a bunch of us played Cards Against Humanity! It's a good way to get to know everyone haha  I wish we were all going to be staying a little closer to one another but it will be good to be a little separated so we make Spanish friends. We're all going to make travel plans together which will be nice. This was the panoramic view off of the balcony in my hotel room with the Cathedral in the distance. 

Today we woke up and had a light breakfast 

and went to our orientation at the library of Toledo: 

We learned a little more about our roles in the school and got some practical information. Then we met our tutors! Maribel is a 34 year old English teacher in the school I'll be at in Daimiel, but she lives in Ciudad Real which is about a half hour away. She picked me up from orientation and we drove about an hour and a half to her apartment. She ordered pizza for me (a very delicious peperone) and I met her boyfriend Samuel. Samuel is also an English teacher; he was born in Portugal, then went to South Africa when he was a year old and spent 17 years there, and then went back to Portugal for 15 years. They're both pretty cool to say the least and we got along well. (ALSO she told me I looked very Spanish right after I met her AND she says my Spanish is good!! Those are THE highest compliments and I love her for them).  She showed me my timetable for school and explained how things would work. Then we went to the city center, met her parents, and took a walk! 

Ciudad Real has about 75,000 people so it's about double the city of Dayton proper without suburbs. I had some ice cream (Chocolate Brownie), met one of Maribel's friends, and talked to the boss of the English academy where Samuel works to inquire about whether I could teach English lessons for "pocket money" as she says. The answer to that question was "vamos a ver," so "we'll see." I'm so excited and grateful for every aspect of this experience and I can't wait to see how this will change me and make me better. It feels so unreal to be here, and thus the punny title of the post. I'll probably be hashtagging it so prepare yourselves. 

I think I'll save my introduction to my host family for the next post because it's 12:58pm here and I am ready to sleep for a whole day. 

Siempre,

Emilia

And then there was one...

For the first time ever, there is only one person left at (or within an hour of) home: Me. For the last 5 years, there have been at least 3 people an hour's drive of each other and our families. It has always been a comfort for those scattered on their own adventures, myself included, to know that there are people at home waiting for them to return. I've had my share of gallivanting, usually only staying in the country long enough to plan my next trip out; so it now seems to be my turn to keep the home fires burning. Schaef (who has yet do anything on here *hint cough cough hint*) is about 3 hours away and she and I are the closest ones now. It's an odd feeling, knowing that I'll be the only one complaining about the continuous highway construction and the ridiculously unpredictable weather.

There is of course the tinge of jealousy as my best friends go out into the world and do exciting things while I'm starting to settle down into my career and "adult" life. It leaves me feeling as though the "adventurous travel" chapter of my life is complete and I've turned into the homebody. It's a slightly terrifying and exceedingly depressing thought. I'm not ready for my yellow leather suitcase to start building up dust. (I saved it from the Goodwill Outlet store. Yes, even the thrift store has a place to send their outdated unwanteds.) I know in my heart that my passport wont sit in the bottom of a drawer for much longer. However as a child of instant gratification and one who has seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory too many times, "I want it now!"

*sigh* I suppose that I will just have to live vicariously through the girls and wait to hear every detail of their adventures to pretend that I'm there with them. That and start making notes on the various places we'll have to go when I visit them.

Biz,

Sarah

Ay. Dios. Mío.

On the bus to Toledo to our hotel for the night! 

Our flight went well. I was writing a very poetic post during it about how I felt like I was in outer space, but then a very friendly gentleman in front of us named Manny started talking to us over the seat for like a half an hour at least. He's a business man and does something with tiling roofs and also managing landfills? But he has a dog named "Lost," because he said he found it, which is pretty funny. Anyways. I slept a tiny bit, we watched Maleficent in Spanish (may have to see it in English now), and we got a pretty good dinner including free wine! I love Spain! We touched down at about 8:15am Spain time which was 2:15am EST and made our way to get our luggage, buy a SIM card for our phones, and then took an airport bus to another terminal to our meeting point. We found out that the girl sitting behind us on the flight was also in our program but not until after we landed! Then we had to wait until 1:30pm our time to take the bus with our group. We got coffee (cafe americano para mi), a donut AND FANTA DE LIMÓN. It's like regular Fanta but lemon flavored and it sparkles like sunshine. You can't get it in the US but it's so good and Katie and I both have missed it. 

All of the people we've met have been super nice so far and we spent the past few hours talking about where we're from, previous travel experiences, and where we would all like to travel while we're here. I feel right in the middle of the pack when it comes to experience traveling abroad and language ability, but I also feel a real connection to these 50 people because most of them chose this program for  similar reasons as I did (love of travel, love of Spain, not knowing what the next life step is, etc.). 

Feelings I'm having: ALL OF THEM. 

This feels like a continuation of a dream I've been having for the past 3 years. It already almost feels like I never left. My month here felt like an entire lifetime and so it feels as if I'm jumping right back into that life.  I've never experienced anything like this before. The street signs, billboards, and store signs are in Spanish and/or kilometers, the music on the bus is a mix of American top 40 and songs in Spanish which is fun, the terrain is just like I remember it, really dry and arid looking with some hills and mountains in the distance, and the sky is blue as can be. I'm so happy to be back and see what this adventure is going to be like! 

Bon Voyage y Buen Viaje!

I'm currently typing this on my phone in the plane from Columbus to New York which is so cool! When I went to Spain the first time (also the last time I flew) I didn't even have a smart phone so I'm interested to see how this trip with be different social media-wise. Anyways, I LOVE flying. This is only the 3rd time I've flown for a trip so it's still very exciting and new. When we were taking off I had the thought, "How amazing are the Wright Brothers and how cool is it that I was born and raised in the same city as they were?" I'm excited to tell my host families where I'm from and see what they know about good old Orville and Wilbur! 

Everything went really smoothly checking in and going through security, I was about a pound over weight on the checked bag but I shifted a couple things to the carry on and it was all good! Our parents all watched us go through security and waved us off (thanks for the ride Mom and Dad!). Katie and I got some Starbucks since I was up until 4am packing and needed a pick me up, and we caught up on life happenings since we saw each other last. It's very strange to go from living together to living an hour away from each other. All this travel time together is great for us!

It's finally starting to sink in that Spain is actually happening. There are no more things on the To-Do List after 10 months of talking about it and planning and preparing and packing. Now it's just a whole lot of Wonderful Unknowns.  It's hopefully a smooth process the rest of the time; we have over 4 hours at JFK before the next flight so there's time to get our bearings and have some food. We're both craving hot dogs so I think it would be a fitting last American meal for three months. The weather is beautiful and the view out the window has been a beautiful sight to see. 

I'm going to keep sipping on my cranberry apple juice and watching Katie doze and I'll post this when we arrive at JFK! ;) 

Siempre, 

Emily W. 

Learning to be, again

I am a college graduate, former Jesuit Volunteer who lived on $100 a month, Catholic, friend, family member, traveler (well, inside the US so far), employee, etc. When I left Dayton, Ohio for college in 2009 I told myself that I would no longer live at home except for the summers between Spring and Fall semesters. It's not that I don't like home or have issues with my family, in fact, it is the exact opposite, that I love home and my family. I know they love and support me no matter what, that they want me to be happy and follow my dreams. My Momma always told me to spread my wings and see the world. Since I know there is a bed waiting for me at home when I visit so I have taken her advice to heart.

I lived in St. Louis for four years and swear I will live there again. I had a tough time adjusting since I was living away from home for the first time ever, six hours to be exact. I knew two people when I moved there and clung to them for the first few weeks. I fought through being homesick and finally fully embraced what my school and new city had to offer. I loved spending the summer there between junior and senior year and made fun memories that only St. Louis has to offer. I cried when I left for that final time after I graduated and could no longer call St. Louis home. I still get chills each time I see the Arch when I drive through, or maybe even just seeing pictures that reflect the sunlight just right.

I moved to Syracuse, NY to live with six complete strangers in a part of the country that I had never been. I was nine hours away from home with no one to call on who had known be before. I figured how to to take the bus to work, to work with hundreds of volunteers and hundreds of hungry folks. I creatively figured out how to cook foods I had never heard of and make decisions that collaborated seven different perspectives regarding one bank account. I was drenched in summer sweat when the temperature was in the upper 90's and covered in blankets and layered clothing when the high temperature was in the negatives with a foot of snow on the ground. I once again fell in love with a city and a group of people that will forever be in my heart. And then my year was over there, and I moved again, just when the rhythm of life seemed normal.

Now I am living in Liberty, MO just north of Kansas City. I am living with an aunt, uncle and cousins as I work with adults with intellectual and development disabilities. I have paternal family all around me which makes being ten hours away from home not that bad. My life is mostly work and family schedule collaboration with splashes of sports and trips to Walgreens. I am learning to be me, again. Learning how to blend my experiences into those of my extended family members, new city, and new responsibilities. Learning how to grow and open myself to challenge, change and life in general, again. Oh, and loving it. :)

Peace,
Annie

List(a)

"Estas lista?" in Spanish means "Are you ready?" I've always remembered this phrase by saying to myself, "You're only ready if you've made your lists!" and I believe it. I'm the type of person who has notebooks and notepads and random pieces of paper in every purse and every surface of my room with different lists scribbled on them. Whether it's a To-Do list or a list of songs I want to look up, I find that they are essential for my productivity and probably for my hygiene (how else am I supposed to remember to shower, or at least put deodorant on in the morning??).

I'm quite the accomplished procrastinator (hence why I am writing on the blog about packing, rather than actually packing), and so I have yet to begin to fill my suitcase with the things I think I'll need for the next 3 months, even though I leave on Sunday. BUT, today I made my packing list and I already feel much better about everything I have to do. The list is very exhaustive and neatly categorized; even though I still haven't crossed anything off of it, I think I'll be able to handle it on Saturday, when I assume I'll actually pack. There are some other hurdles to come though, and weight limits and heartbreaking choices about shoes are the first ones that come to mind.

On some level this does not quite feel real yet. I've been looking forward to going back to Spain since I left there in July of 2011 and it's all I've talked and thought about for months and months. But it's finally almost here, and it's time to get this show on the road! I have a feeling it might not sink in until I'm on the plane, but my heart is ready. Of tonight though, all I can say is that cats, internet, phone calls and texts from important, old friends, and the antics of my little bro have all brought me to this point: with Lists, but not quite Lista.

What's in a name

So the name of our blog involves baked goods but our background is a jetliner. There is method to our madness. 

As best friends in high school, whenever we'd have a "girls night" there would inevitably be brownies. I'm sure it began with us baking them and cutting them out nicely into neat little squares but by the end we'd place the pan on the table and pass around the cutlery. Thus eating a whole pan of brownies. It became tradition and now no get together is complete without it. (Side note, regardless if all six of us are home or it's just three, we always manage to eat the whole thing. We're talented that way.)

Now that we are all grown up (ish) our lives are taking us in different directions. Some of us are staying in the always lovely Ohio* while others are feeding the patrons of Disneyworld, changing the world in Missouri, teaching English in Spain, or studying some ungodly complicated neuropsychology-PhD-whatever in New Zealand. So we began this internet adventure to share our real life adventures. Because plane tickets are expensive and time zones are rough. 

Biz

Sarah

*denotes the use of heavy sarcasm

Check, Check, Is This Thing On?

Hey friends! Just trying to figure out how this is going to work!