One month to go...

And so the countdown begins.... 25 days until my flight leaves for Spain. I'm overwhelmed with so many emotions and the fact that it's Shark Week on the Discovery channel is barely helping my emotional overload. Since I was accepted into the Madrid year program I've had all sorts of things to do in preparation for my departure including the nightmare of obtaining my student visa, registering for classes, contacting my host families, organizing flights etc.

While figuring out the logistics of the rapidly approaching semester has had its own excitements and frustrations, another aspect of my preparation, my Spanish preparation has been a whirlwind of emotions as well. Amongst the verb charts, flashcards, books, music and all of the other tools I've been using to prepare myself I feel like I've been swept away into a tizzy of all things español. My facebook is set to Spanish, I'm reading Harry Potter in Spanish, I even watch the news in Spanish!

(If you're interested I read the online version of the big newspaper there el país, literally meaning the country and I also watch an online news channel called la 2 noticias which is basically like channel 2 news. Links for both are El País  and La 2 Noticias)

Even though at times I think I may be going a little over kill I still have concerns that I'm not doing enough. After all, up until this point I've only had one Spanish professor who was from Spain and so pretty much everything I have been taught is very distinctly South American Spanish. I find myself second guessing my accent particularly the ceseo or lisp with which Spaniards speak. And while the more challenging aspect as a Spanish student will be for me to become accustomed to the vosotros verb conjugation (essentially a plural form of you) which just doesn't exist in the Spanish that I already know, I'm more concerned about the ceseo, without which will instantly identify me as a foreigner. The ceseo is the accent characteristic only of the Spanish spoken in Spain. (There is Castilian which is the official language and spoken through most parts of Spain including Madrid and also Catalan which is spoken primarily in Barcelona, this difference in language only adding to the cultural rivalry between the two cities). There is a story that the ceseo accent stems from King Ferdinand having a lisp and then the people of Spain copying the way he spoke but this is just an old wive's tale. If you're interested in learning more about the real origins of the ceseo and lots of more specifics you can click on these links: Where did the Spaniards get their "lisp"? or Ceseo. 

Regardless of all of that history of Spanish linguistics the fact of the matter is that today in Spain they speak with a different accent than I am accustomed to hearing or speaking. I know I'm going pretty far out on a limb by saying this will mark me as a foreigner in Spain because obviously I have blonde hair, blue eyes and light skin (thanks a lot Dad) and amongst other reasons am rather stereotypically American, but the accent is something that I feel I have within my control and so it is something that as a student I am still pretty insecure about and for the life of me I can't work it into my pronunciation without it feeling awkward. I know that this is only normal and that I probably won't make much progress on it until I actually get to Spain and only then will it start to become integrated into my normal flow of speech but unfortunately until then I will be stuck with this as an insecurity as I go into Spain. A silly thing to lose sleep over but such is life. I think most people have only heard me talk about my strengths and excitement up until this point so hopefully knowing this will shed some light on the more nervous part of my anticipation. 

Of course I'm nervous for all sorts of other reasons too like meeting my host families, finding my way around the city, getting to all the places I'm hoping to see in Spain and around Europe before the end of the year and all the while staying on top of my school work at a Spanish University! In my next post, I'll give a better idea of what the next year will look like as far as an abstract itinerary goes and I'll also post about my host families and other exciting things like that! I'm still trying to figure out this whole blog situation but bear with me and I promise I'll do my best to stay updated.

Love you all!!

xxxx