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Pre-arrival jitters

August 17, 2022

By the time this post is published, it will be Wednesday. I leave for Stockholm on Friday morning. It still hasn’t fully registered, despite having attended my final pre-orientation Zoom meeting at the end of last week and being less than 48 hours from takeoff. I’ve only been home for a few days, having gotten back from Denver last Wednesday evening which means I’ll have had a grand total of 9 (nine!) days at home before being gone for four months! While I wish I could have had a little bit more time to see friends and family before leaving again, I am quite excited to embark on this new journey.

I’ve never lived for an extended period of time outside of the country, having spent only two weeks in Central Europe and one week in Greece at different times in high school. As such, I’m certainly feeling nervous about getting acclimated to the new environment and all of the emotions and sensations which will accompany that transition. After all, Stockholm is a long ways from home (approximately 4,250 miles or 10 hours and 20 minutes, to be exact).

DIS seems to have an incredible support system in place to address these emotions and facilitate the transition to the new life in Stockholm, and I’m sure that I will be well taken care of.

I’m planning to spend my final days at home seeing friends, eating distinctly unhealthy American foods (specifically Culver’s), and spending as much time as I can doing things that I know I won’t be able to during my time abroad. I cannot wait to embark on this new journey on Friday, and I look forward to keeping everyone updated through this blog.