One week...

I never knew I could get so excited about buying cotton rounds. I've got a week left stateside - finally, all of those errands that I have been thinking about doing can be done. After all, it would have been premature to purchase a semester's worth of shampoo three weeks ago. So today, a final run to Wal Mart was in order. Got to love the goold old American value of mass consumption.

Last post I talked about the banking situation. And sorry, HSBC, but for the world's second largest bank, not having ATMs or branches in Spain is kind of pathetic. At least I think that is the case - I can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone there, and it's driving me crazy. In other news, I finally got around to getting my online passwords to my bank account (seriously, it's such a pain when you forget them, and you always do - there's like six layers of security required just to change my username) so that should make my life easier. Last night, I started to lay clothes out to pack. The first go-around is everything that I would want to take if I could teleport over there. Tonight, I'll add some more clothes (I gave up last night trying to decide how many gym shirts I'll need). Slowly, I will start to subtract clothing so that I won't have too much to carry. It will be a tough process, especially since most of the clothes I wear at home and at school are sweatpants, and that's not going to fly in Sevilla (when I told my sister this, she asked me how I was going to survive).

I received my family and my roommate information yesterday, that's exciting. In a strange twist, I think the father of my homestay family might be an academic in the chemistry field, which is ironic considering that my dad is a chemical engineer. My roommate is from New Jersey and she is a Spanish major so that will be helpful. I've been reviewing my Spanish (although I wish we had Telemundo, apparently Time Warner cannot appreciate that some in the suburbs wish to view Spanish language programming - ESPN Deportes is such a drag sometimes, especially when Beisbol Mexicana is on for five hours). Nightly chats with Janelle have been helping me get in the mindset. I miss English already. The other night when I was talking with Janlle I realized I didn't know the word for tape. As in Scotch tape. What if I need tape? Am I going to have to consult my Spanish-English dictionary to find a word that I take for granted in English? (Ironically, I do know the word for sweatpants, which, just for extra assurance to those critics who think that's all I own, I will not be bringing - sudaderas). I've been thinking a lot lately about what I've been saying, and if I could say it in Spanish. Needless to say, we're a far cry from that. But at least I won't have a repuation as a chatty cathy anymore.

Throughout all of this prep, I'm not really worried about the huge parts, like language, etc. Instead I've been devoting my energies to wondering what the deoderant situation is (I'm not kidding you here, one of my biggest fears is that there will be no deoderant). And I'll admit, it's still a little surreal, even with friends abroad and back at Ithaca. I keep thinking I'm going to be at home forever (it certainly has felt like that). But in a week, I'll be in Sevilla!