Visa!

I have my visa! My mom and I went to DC today to pick it up. It's been about 7 weeks since I applied for my long term residence visa and they say it takes at least 5 weeks and often times longer so I'm glad we applied when we did so now I have 2 weeks to spare without freaking out. My visa is for 90 days, so when I get to Spain I'll have to go to a police station and there they'll give me a stamp for the next 13o days or so.

The pre-orientation call was last night, it was pretty much just an overview of things we've already heard before with some new info, Joe told us that none of us have uniforms but then I talked to my host mom Maite and she said that I do in fact have a uniform...which is kind of a relief seeing that I have no clothes.

Joe also told us that the group going to Barcelona (with InterHispania) will include us 14 American students and then more students (50 some all together) from France, Germany, Australia, Japan and New Zealand..and maybe a few more I forget. We'll be touring (Sept 18-19) and going over more orientation stuff during the day and having group dinners and staying in a youth hostel at night. The 20th is the day that we all part ways and go to our separate host families. I'll be flying from Barcelona to Jerez de la Frontera (with at least one other girl with InterHispania, an American) which is about a half hour drive away from San Fernando.

I'm pretty sure I start school on the 22nd at Amor de Dios in the old part of the city of Cadiz, about a 15 minute train ride from my host family's piso (apartment). Maite (who works as the school's receptionist) and I will either drive or take the train every day together.

Maite sent me another email today - just about my uniform question (she says she has some uniform stuff for me and that we'll go shopping for anything else I need when I get there) and she also says that she has some of my textbooks all ready for me to use which is really nice because I heard from exchange students in the past that it's a real pain to get the textbooks and that they're really expensive..I guess it's a perk of having my host mom work at my school!

The last few weeks have been crazy, and the next (and last) 2 weeks at home should be even crazier. The movers are coming sometime next week I believe to pick up all our stuff (beds included) so we've got a lot of work ahead of us. We've already done hours and hours of packing...I didn't realize how much junk we had until now! We have some going away parties planned, and family dinners and whatnot. It's gonna go by really fast..I leave 2 weeks from today! It's starting to feel real now that the departure date is getting closer and I'm starting to get more nervous but so excited at the same time.

Sorry for all these borings posts. In 2 weeks hopefully they'll be more interesting!