Here's to a New Adventure

I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm getting virtually no sleep tonight.

So much of my lack of readiness is my fault.  I totally waited until the last minute on so many things, just miscalculating how much time I thought I'd have to do what I needed to do.  It sort of sucks, and, in light of an email exchange I had a few hours ago, kind of embarrassing.

But here I am, a few hours before I'm supposed to be at the Delta check-in desk to be a part-time assistant with a brand new study abroad program.  I'm also going to do "research."  Yeah, I have a plan.  I have copies of a nice little typed up Spanish version of my proposal to aid me if any scholars or curators ask what my research is about, but what does that even mean?  I have no idea what doing research in Cuba even looks like, and I have no idea if any of my plans will even come close to being carried out.  Let's face it: I don't really know what I'm doing, and Cuban Spanish is going to take me for a ride.  My gringa patchwork of Latin American accent and occasionally European Spanish phrasings and vocabulary is not going to do me any favors.  I've been told by a few that I have a Cuban "look."  So, maybe if I keep my mouth shut, keep calm and carry on, I might be able to get by a little more easily.  Worth a try.

I should be thankful I have this opportunity, and I am.  I know it's going to be fun.  I know I'm going to have to be patient.  I know it's going to be different.  I know lots of funny things will happen.  I know lots of frustrating things will happen.  I'm sure I'll have a lot of stories to tell when I get back.

I want to take everything in stride. I want to open myself up to the unexpected. I want to discover something I didn't anticipate.

For the past few weeks, I've been surrounded by the feeling that something is about to change.  As a friend said, "Like you open up your front door and everything looks different."  There are a few things that are shifting around in my life right now in a state of indeterminacy, a sense of something-but-not-quite.  Maybe Cuba will give me at least a fleeting glance at what that something is.

Here's to a new adventure.