Today I bought my ticket to Madrid. I leave on July 26th. I will be taking a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course, and my plan is to teach English abroad for at least a year. I'm open to the possibility of staying abroad longer.
I will miss: my friends and family, Mexican food, the use of a dishwasher and clothes dryer, being familiar with how to do things (those unspoken rules of my culture), long & hot showers, the forests, the color of my bedroom walls, having all my stuff with me, my hairstylist, knowing what most of the food in the grocery store is.
I look forward to: cafe con leche, pan duro, queso manchego, the beauty & variety of Spanish architecture, not working 40 hours a week in an office, the absence of enormous vehicles on the roads, teaching again, great public transportation, the night life, walking my butt off, improving my Spanish, kissing people hello, a focus on living life instead of earning money, having more fun, having a sense of community through my TEFL program, tortilla espanola, carne con tomate, spending hours in the museums (free admission on Sunday mornings), learning more about Spanish culture, traveling, learning more about myself, discovering what I can live without and all the things I never knew I was missing.
