Somehow I got the idea in my head that studying abroad would be all fun and games, that classes and life outside of Penn would be less complicated and less stressful.  WRONG.  I didn’t formally think of it this way, but in the back of my head I had conceived a bit of this idea.

I have still managed to be just as busy, if not more so than at school. Things that I never thought would take up time constantly butt their way into my life. Staying in contact with friends and family with the time change, homework (which I, of course, always find some way to put it off or get too absorbed in the assignment and spend an unnecessary amount of time on a small thing). exploring Madrid, planning other adventures (bane of my existence right now), meeting new people, finishing up summer applications (why didn’t I do them before I left like I promised myself), spending time with my host family, discovering new foods and neighborhoods, still working at my job at school via the internet, and overall navigation in a foreign (in all senses of the word) world–it is truly exhausting, not to mention the little mishaps from not being able to understand everything people say to you (and, boy, is it mentally draining focusing on Spanish-talk for more than an hour or two).

Why must I have the desire to do it all?