Visas and Predeparture Jitters

So, I leave DC three weeks from tomorrow! The time felt kind of ripe for a blog post. I finally got my information from Intercultura, which were really just the papers that let me apply for my visa. I was stressing out about it because I've heard plenty of visa horror stories.

Luckily, it was painless! I was definitely WAY too excited just to be there, even though we just sat and waited for an hour. I'm really glad the consulate is close to me because some people have to fly to places like LA just to hand someone papers. Our "appointment" was under five minutes, and everything seemed to be in order. Also, I didn't realize this before, but being at the consulate was my first time hearing spoken Italian in real life, not just in a movie or something. I tried to listen in on the conversations a little and I only caught a few words that I understood. And these were things like buongiorno, grazie, sì, etc. I know this probably should've freaked me out (a lot) but the language is so beautiful and it re-motivated me to keep up with my Italian lessons. It's still my main worry right now, though. I'm too shy about my Italian to even greet the people in the consulate in it.

Which leads to these predeparture jitters. I just went to the beach for the weekend, came back, and realized I leave in 21 days. I'm absolutely excited to go, but I still have so much to do! It felt like a long time before but now it's like wow, I only have 3 weekends left? And I didn't think finding host family gifts would be so difficult, but it is. I have a few ideas for my host parents, but I don't know about my siblings. AND, il mio italiano non è bene. (And that was probably incorrect).

But really, the excitement is canceling all of that out right now. I'm trying to keep an open mind and arrive with zero expectations, which is so much harder than it sounds! For now, I'm just going to work on my Italian, finish up the last of my paperwork, and enjoy the next three weeks with everyone at home.

(P.S. There's a lot of cheesy things I could say this close to departure, but I'm avoiding all of it.)