Pre-Departure...
I'm currently in England visiting my family for Christmas for the first time in 7 years and they are loud! This visit is basically my honeymoon as I got married 3 weeks ago and as neither my husband or I have family in Australia, it's all a bit of a shock to the system...in a nice way. Between visiting my 40 or so aunties, uncles and cousins, as well as meeting my various nieces and nephews for the first time, not to mention playing tour guide to my new hubby, I've not really had chance to think very much about the upcoming course.
My decision to do the course was very sudden. Walking into my first Spanish tutorial for the second semester of second year uni, I was with people who had lived or studied in Spanish-speaking countries and I quickly realised that I wasn't going to keep up without a similar experience. Although I have previously travelled around Latin America, it was as an English speaker with a few phrases of Spanish, namely those that involved asking for beer, coffee and saying no onion with my food! So, after class I went to the international office at uni and asked what options there were for studying Spanish overseas, the AIM course popped up and I pretty much decided there and then - I've never been one for delay!
I now have about 10 days to plan everything and it's a bit more challenging when you're not at home surrounded by your creature comforts, so I'm just going to fall back on my tried and tested method - if I forget to take something I can buy it there - it pretty much applies to everything except for passport and cash, oh and husbands lol.
Trying to work out what the weather is going to be seems to be the trickiest, I'm currently experiencing a cold and wet English winter, so I've got lots of bulky items I'm just not going to take to Mexico. While we're talking about what to pack, my biggest piece of advice to anyone who is interested is this: if you've gone and bought yourself a massive pack - you know, when you walk into Kathmandu or Mountain designs and look for anything over 60 litres - seriously, take it back and swap it for something no bigger than 40 litres. You won't need anything bigger than that and you will LOVE not carting it around, plus you will feel quietly smug every time you see people lugging their extreme packs on and off public transport, or up and down hostel stairs. Check out this link for more info, it's the best travel site I've ever found: www.travelindependent.info/.
So the packing is sort of organised, lots of layers and I'm planning on buying a poncho when I get there - the loudest one I can find. I've got my travel money card (www.cashpassport.com), my old iPhone is unlocked, I've got my passport in triplicate and on my email, I've printed and emailed my flight e-tickets, I've updated my couchsurfing profile and sent off a few requests for the couple of days I am there early (www.couchsurfing.org), vaccinations are done (www.travel-bug.com), I've registered with smarttraveller (www.smartraveller.gov.au) and I've got my US waiver as my return flight stops in Dallas for a few hours (https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov). All that remains is to figure out how on earth I'm going to get from the airport to the city as airport taxis in Latino countries are notoriously dodgy, but I reckon I'll ask my couchsurfing friends and see what they suggest.
I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone. I'm a little apprehensive about how bad my Spanish is going to be as I haven't spoken any for a while, but if anyone needs a beer I'm your gal. I can't wait for the weekly salsa classes and I'm hoping there are Zumba classes at the uni, or if not maybe they'll let me teach some. Plus I have an ongoing obsession with Mexican history and I am really excited about the cultural trips so it's going to be fab.
I'm going to miss Lauchy (the husband), but after the course he is going to join me and we'll spend another 2 months in Mexico and Cuba, with lots of focus on dance!
See you all soon. ¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!
Callie Barrett is participating in our January 2012 Intensive Spanish program at La Salle University, Mexico. Callie is about to enter into her 4th year of a Bachelor of Arts (double degree in Spanish and English) at Flinders University.
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