Blog Post by: Michelle Manganello
You WILL get there
Let me
start off by telling you that I am reporting live from my bed, in my wonderful
host family's home, in MADRID, ESPANA.
Now, let me
also tell you this. It. was. Hell. And. A. Half. to get here.
My advice
to you:
SLXLM
-KEEP WITH IT.
-Keep some sort of faith
that all will work out...even when shit hits the fan. It's going to hit the
fan...accept it now.
-Stay ORGANIZED.
-Keep in touch with your
Study Abroad advisor. Because you will forget that thing that you weren't
supposed to forget.
-Make lists. Make so many to
do lists.
-PERSISTANCE PERSISTANCE
PERSISTANCE.
-One more time for the
homies in the back, DO NOT GIVE UP.
-BREATHE
-Have a folder on your phone
of the place you want to go, make it your phone background, give yourself a
beautiful reminder of what you are working towards.
There are going to be so many
things go wrong. But it is going to be worth it I promise you.
PICKING.
THE. CLASSES.
I don't
even know how to open this can of worms. But here goes....
First, you
pick a country, then you pick the school, fall in love with the school,
fantasize about eating Crepes outside your first period classroom, hype your
mom up about how perfect the school is, and then find out that not all 5/5
classes will work. Back to the drawing board. Rinse. Repeat.
Don't
worry. My drawing board went from Melbourne, Australia, to Ecuador, to Costa
Rica, to Granada Spain, to Madrid Spain.
STUDY ABROAD PRO TIP:
If you are
working at trying to fit this puzzle piece in where it just does not fit, its
probably because that is not the right piece in the first place. Let me tell
you, I tried for 6 months to get Deakin to work out for me, and you know what,
it just was because that is not where I was supposed to go. And now here I am.
In Europe for goodness sakes. Not that it was easy to get here, but it just
wasn't a new struggle every day, ya know. If it is not working out, and I
mean REALLY NOT WORKING...then try something new, don't give up, but just try
something new.
SLXLM
Most recently,
I, Michelle Anne Manganello, did not have a confirmed place to live until
January 2nd. I left on the 4th. The company I was going through took their
sweet time on the email game, let me tell you. IM TALKING ABOUT YOU ADRIAN. I
had to wake up at 4 am to talk to this company to have a misely 5 minute Skype
call that had NO useful information whatsoever. Everything that was covered in
this Skype call at that ungodly hour, was the same bologna information that I
knew way back in October (now being the beginning of January). I did not get
any word from this company until January 2nd. TWO DAYS BEFORE I LEAVE. Do you
understand the stress of having to answer all of your relatives' questions, NO
AUNTIE I DO NOT KNOW WHERE IM LIVING YET, YEAH STILL DON'T HAVE MY VISA YET
EITHER OKAY COOL EVERYTHING'S FINE EVERYTHING IS GOOD. Things were not good.
Lol I digress. Thank the Lord...... my friend found a homestay that I could go
in on with her.
F'REAL
GUYS: www.homestay.com
YOU WILL
SAVE SO MUCH DINERO I'M TELLIN YOU.
SLXLM
Back to the
fun stress.
There was
this really fun point in time where the Consulate General of Los Angeles (I
live on Oahu, and fun fact, the closest Spanish Consulate General is in Los
Angles, California.) WELL. The CG of LA thought they could play a real fun joke
on the poor study abroad kids. It goes like this: If you are a STUDENT of
Hawaii, you need to report to the Hawaiian district of Consulates. ($800 trip
to San Fransisco) BUT San Fransisco wants to play that "we don't have any
appointments for two months, and it takes a month to process" game.
Love it.
I am from
Connecticut, so even though I live in Hawaii, and should report to the SanFran
Consulate, there was a CHANCE that I could just try the New York one. BUT these
consulates need IN PERSON appointments. So if you are like me, and live in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean, and cannot afford a $1,500 weekend trip to the Big
Apple, then here we are, in THE BIGGEST PICKLE I'VE EVER BEEN IN *read in Brian
Dobson's voice* {for those who lived under a rock in the 90's, Brian Dobson
narrated The Sandlot.} ANYWHO
So here is
what you do.
Here is the
number of the New York Spanish Consulate. +1 212-355-4080
You are
going to need to call them about 77,646,309,326 times within these next few
months. I would memorize it now, folks.
You may
need to whip up a few tears. I'm sure it won't be too hard because at this
point it is probably mid term week and you have had it up to here with the
issues that have come up in trying to get abroad.
Now, just
explain the situation. And BAM! They are cool with you sending all of the paper
work to them via MAIL. AND if you send a prepaid self addressed envelope, then
you can just have them mail it back to you.
EASY PEASY
LEMON SQUEEZY.
Can we just
have a really quick round of applause for The Spanish Consulate General of New
York (THE REAL MVPs LET ME TELL YOU). *
SMXLL
Your mom is
going to worry. Or maybe your dad, who ever your primary designated worrier is.
They will freak out. At least once. Mostly because until you are actually in
the country of choice, calling them saying you arrived to a stable place to
live, and the school part of Studying Abroad is all worked out......... until
then basically something will be up in the air.
And you
will want them to tell you that it's going to be fine, and they will. If not,
find someone who will, hell, I will tell you that it will be fine.
IT
WILL BE FINE.
*There is a
really great anecdote about my trip to New York to get the Visa, but it is most
definitely not anything I want to blog about. But if you would love to know,
feel free to message me for the inside scoop.
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