So, for starters...

I knew I wanted to create a blog about this someday, but what better time than now? We don't leave for another three months, but the process has already begun! Besides, I'm up at 10:30, trying to procrastinate on my Spanish homework due tomorrow. So, I'm blogging about Spain! Oh, the sweet irony.

So let me begin. I'm Bana. The boyfriend is Cade. And we're studying abroad in Bilbao, Spain in Spring 2009.

That sounds like it required a lot of decisionmaking, but it really didn't. Honestly. Not at all. We're seniors in college this year, and having lost multiple opportunities to study abroad in my three years spent in college, I knew this year would be my last chance. So, just four weeks ago, not long after this school year started, I decided I wanted to go to Spain. Yeah, it was rash, and hasty and I'm sure I didn't think everything out as well as I should have, but hey, I wanted to go to Spain. That was step one. Getting the boyfriend to come along was a different story entirely.

Except it wasn't, really. He managed to finagle his way into a business study abroad program at the same university. It's really worked out perfectly. I'm doing a Spanish language and culture program, while he does his business program. And we'll both be able to graduate in May, provided that his professors let him take his exams early and get out of there in time for our graduation.

We've filled out all the paperwork, which was confusing as hell, because it's a different language. I mean, we know enough Spanish to get by, but still! But to sum up, the steps I took to get here:

1) hastily decide one day that I'm going to Spain; apply for passport
2) the next day, wonder what the hell I was thinking and how the hell I'm going to pay for this
3) research, Google, research, e-mail, research, Google some more...
4) talk to my study abroad advisor, where she pointed me in the direction of my study abroad program - it's called CIDE at la Universidad de Deusto in Bilbao, Spain
5) talk to the parents; get their go-ahead
6) applications, application fees, more applications, naps, fees
7) helping my boyfriend with his applications
8) getting accepted into the program, impatiently waiting for our visa letters to get here so we can apply for our visas

And that's where we are right now. The biggest thing on our plate right now is housing, which might be a doosy. Our first master plan was to stay in a hostel a couple nights after we arrived in Bilbao, and look for a cheap one bedroom flat shortly after that. Bloggers made that sound easy, because they said there was some type of central message board in the university where people put housing availabilities. But I e-mailed the Deusto housing person and she reminded me of all the reasons that's not a great idea. So, we're now looking at a cute little student residence apartment that she recommended to us. No decisions yet, but it seems perfect enough.

Second up, is flights. We need to book them, but the prices keep going up, down, up, down that I don't know when to book or when to wait. Obviously, we've chosen the latter for now.

So, I guess that's where we're at now. The trip is still three months away, but there's so much to do! And I'm so excited!