Pre-departure nerves!

My official departure date is January 26th, 8:30am, from SFO, which is coming up soon in approximately 3 more days!  I'm taking Air France with one layover in JFK, New York, and then on to Madrid, Spain, where I'll be spending two days before I head over to Cordoba.

When I initially signed up for this I only felt excitement, but as the departure date approaches the nerves are taking over!  I knew I wanted to study abroad during my college years even before I was accepted because I only heard good things about it and I didn't want any regrets...life's too short.  I'm not sure if it's part of growing up or being a college student but lately I have had a desire to experience new, different things like experiencing a new culture and backpacking through Europe.

Part of nerves, of course, is from the realization that this IS IT!  I'm going to Spain...to Europe...somewhere foreign...and for a whole semester which is about four months long!!  Another reason is that with any long trip or significant feat it takes preparation.  There's always a "what if" I forget this or I didn't prepare enough for it.  My planning process has been a bit all over the place, doing what I can when I can and attempting to create a spread list of what needs to be done.  So much to do in so little time it seems as it always feels by the end of the day and I question myself, "What have I done today?" or during the entire winter break for that matter.

There are so many things I wanted to do over winter break, but I'm left with the feeling that I didn't accomplish anything.  I've been bumming and spending time with family and friends, so I guess the one thing I did get out of it was getting more sleep and being able to take time off to relax.  Very poor time management which seems to happen everytime I go home.

And indeed a huge part of the butterflies is attributed to me wanting to make the most out of this opportunity and hoping that I live it up to the fullest like past students and learning from their experiences and regrets.  Then again I don't want to think too much about it because it's always best not to expect anything.

Time for last minute-packing!