This Is Not A Test

It is 7.23pm. The sun is making its merry way to setting for the night and is casting long shadows of trees on the softly lit fields in the distance. And I am listening to Gangsta's Paradise..

I'm in my brother's room, finally making some sort of effort towards packing. On Monday I leave for Barcelona for ten months of missing my friends and family and boyfriend, ten months of being thrown in the deep end of university classes through Spanish, ten months of dealing with continental European bureaucracy, ten months of cooking for myself and cleaning for myself and taking care of myself.

But cheer up Livi! My expectations of my Erasmus year have been built up to inordinate proportions over my two years of university education by fresh-faced newly-returned students gushing about how it was "the most amazing experience" of their life and how you meet "the most amazing people" and do "the most amazing things". Needless to say, I'm slightly sceptical that living in Barcelona won't be as amazing as they all say it will be. But we mustn't be cynical. What I'm hoping to get out of this year is a better understanding of the Spanish language and culture, some interesting and fun friends, and the opportunity to travel around Europe to visit other Erasmus friends. If I can get that much then I really think I'll return happy, which is the most anyone can hope for in general!

I set up this blog not just to keep people posted on what I'm up to, things which I hope are many and varied. It was actually my cousin Lucy's idea. In three weeks from today, Lucy will move to New York. The interesting thing is that when Lucy was my age, she moved to Barcelona for a year. So we're hoping to offer some sort of parallel starting afresh-themed viewpoints on life in cities internationally recognised as being big and exciting, by two girls from the same city nationally recognised as being small and exciting (at least in comparison to other Irish cities!). And I guess we also hope that people interested in what I'm up to will also be interested in what Lucy's up to, and vice versa.

I could promise you an amazing blog experience, but I think I've underlined the dangers of that, so the best I can wish you is happy reading :)