¡Bienvenidos!

To go or not to go?

Well, that is the question.

Hello everyone, and bienvenidos to my travel blog! As you may know, I got a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education to go and teach English in Spain for an academic year through the Auxiliares de Conversación program. I’ve been going back and forth on whether I should go or continue to pursue my hunt for the coveted and elusive job.

Honestly speaking, I applied to this program partly out of fear: as a college senior, watching the economy crumble before your eyes is both traumatic and devastating (me, dramatic? No… :). Originally I saw this program as a way to avoid the non-existent job market, but also as a culmination of many of my passions. As you may know, I’m a bit of a Spanish freak: I love everything Spanish – the culture, history, language, music, food, the list could really go on. And after spending six months last year in Argentina, I thought it would be a wonderful experience to go to where it all began: Spain. So this amor for all things Spanish, combined with my passion for traveling and Europe, led me to apply and eventually accept this grant.

After a few false leads on jobs, I thought perhaps I was making a mistake. Maybe I should stick it out, weather the storm, and hopefully emerge with a decent job, no matter how long that may take. This is where I began thinking: to go or not to go, that was my very big question. After too much time going back and forth, over analyzing and hyper rationalizing, I decided that I had to stop. At this rate, I could come up with just as many reasons to go and to not go.

So I decided to just go with what felt right. I thought, years from now, will I look back and regret not taking a job I don’t love in this terrible economy? Or will I regret not taking the opportunity to live in Spain for a year? More logically, I settled on this: I will have the rest of my life to work. But when will I have the opportunity to teach English, live in Spain and play in Europe? I don’t see that happening again. So I’ve decided to go to Spain for the academic year. I’ll keep this travel blog to update you on my new vida española, my observations and travels. If you read my Argentina blog, then you already know I’ll have lots of unique stories, thoughts and adventures to share.

I’ll probably do another pre-trip post to update you on my preparations, and then the real fun will begin! Until then, ¡hasta la vista!

Un beso,
B