If you haven't heard, I decided yesterday to go to
Spain tomorrow. If you’re like
most people I’ve told, you might be nodding empathetically. And about ten minutes later, realize
what I actually said. I barely
believe it myself, but it’s happening.
Why Spain? Why now?
I’ll tackle the second question first- this week, I switched my
dissertation topic and went from a 0% to 60% completion overnight, with my
committee member’s blessings. I
also retroactively got reimbursed with two grand of student fees (thank you
National Science Foundation!).
Switching my dissertation topic also means the clock is ticking for me
to take advantage of the flexible freedom of graduate school and being able to
write from everywhere. And the way
time flies these days, I’ve realized time is the most precious resource and
what better time to live life to the fullest than when you’re young,
able-bodied and relatively free?
Why Spain?
They say Disney World is the happiest place on earth but when I look at
pictures of Barcelona’s carefree, colorful architecture, I can’t imagine how
anyone could walk around the city without a smile on their face. I’m completely smitten (and expect to
be disappointed) but until I see it for myself, I’ll keep dreaming about
skipping through streets surrounded by a blend of modern, gothic and
renaissance self-expression. It’ll
be nice to revive my Spanish skills before they meet an irreversible demise. I’ve never been to Europe and it should
be a pretty safe place for my first completely unchartered solo travel
adventure. And because one of my
couch surfing friends here is going to Madrid over break (he's Brazilian but has lived in Madrid the last nine years and loves it) and he didn’t think my
plan was crazy. Well, maybe he
did, but he thought random adventures like this give life flavor. If other people in Spain embrace this
kind of insanity, I’ll be in a good place. And last-minute flights were absurdly reasonably priced. We’ll see if those are actually good reasons.
I know probably should be a frenzied machine of frantic
preparation but things are falling into place so I thought I deserved a writing
break. The past 45 minutes I spent
dancing in one sock and teal leggings, transporting random articles from my
closet into my backpack to Shakira radio on Pandora. Multi-tasking packing with practicing my salsa shake
made one of my least favorite activities infinitely more bearable.
And as previously mentioned, I think I’m in pretty good
shape for the next two weeks. Within
48 hours of this decision, I have an itinerary and I’ve found friends almost
everywhere I’m going. Between
Otta, his friends and couch surfers, I’ve got plenty of help for three days in
Madrid. I found a Greek girl who I
should be able to travel to and stay with in Grenada. From Grenada, I’ll take the overnight train to Barcelona
where several friendly people volunteered to show me around. For the Christmas festivities, I’ll be celebrating
and staying in a hostel with a couple other travelers- an Indian engineer who
works with Saab in Switzerland currently and his American friend that he met at
the University of Maryland. From
there, I’m flying to Lisbon where three people offered to host me. I’m getting such good vibes from that
city and can’t wait! After four
days in Lisbon, I’ll fly back to Madrid and fly home in time to watch the acorn
drop in Raleigh for New Year’s Eve.
So we’ll see how this goes! I’m leaving my computer home so
I’m not sure how many pictures and good quality posts I’ll be able to share
during my journey. I want to
switch to Wordpress one of these days but that’s why I decided to wait a little
longer because pecking on an ipad does not lead to award-winning narration.
I’ll close with a quote from Jack London, “I would rather be
ashes than dust. I would rather
that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by
dry rot. I would rather be a superb
meteor, every atom of me in a magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent
planet. The function of man is to
live, not to exist. I shall not
waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time”.
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