90 minutes later I was meeting those students who, not so surprisingly, looked and felt the same as I did. But they were equally as excited as I was, if not more so. For some of them, this will be their first time out of the country and for the majority of them, it will be the longest they have been away from family and friends. A bit scary, but exciting! Somehow I'm jealous.
10 years ago, I was in a similar position. Not as a student, but running this program. I accepted this job, never having been to Segovia and I did a similar trek as the students. In 2006 I arrived at the same airport, sans my main piece of luggage with all my clothing, carried my belongings to the metro where I navigated my way to a bus station, caught a bus that about an hour later drove through the Sierra Guadarrama mountain range and eventually deposited me at the Estación de Autobuses in Segovia where an eccentric gentleman named Luis Encinas, who looked surprisingly similar to the images we see of Don Quixote, whisked me off toward my hotel, the entire time speaking to me as fast as possible in Castilian Spanish and 10 minutes later deposited me at Hotel Los Linajes where I checked in to my room, dropped off my things and thought, "What the heck am I doing?" before falling directly to sleep for 2 hours. Siesta.
When the students read this, they will immediately see the similarities in the experience they had upon arrival. Well, without me having been fed entirely too much food and being hugged and kissed before my siesta. That would be a weird thing for the hotel staff to do. But you get the point. Do I understand what they're going through? Yep. And I love it. This is something that drives me. It's so exciting to know that this is it! This is your summer abroad! It makes me want to do my best because there are no "do overs." These are students who I'll see walking around campus next semester; I'll bump into them at Harris Teeter in 2 years buying food; I'll read about them on Facebook in 6 years getting married. And when I do see them they'll say, "Oh man! I miss Segovia! I want to go back! Are you still running the Segovia program?" You bet I am. Let's make this your best summer ever. ¡Bienvenidos!