Infected

I have always been infected with the travel virus. But the first time it really struck me was at school. I was sixteen and there was an activities week going on. I had landed in the wrong classroom by accident. Well, wrong according to the schedule. Perfect, however, for me.

It was a class about exchange programs. I don’t remember much, they probably talked about EF, AFS, etc. But I do remember feeling enthused as never before. I came home that night and explained enthusiastically to my parents that I didn´t want to go to university right after high school, I wanted to spend a year abroad.

They were doubtful, to say the least. But when they said: “No, it´s too expensive”, I said “OK, I’ll find a way to pay for it myself”. So I wrote a financial plan, explaining how i would pay for it all by myself. They saw how serious I was about this and gave in.  In the end, we split the costs. I threw a big party, sold cookies, … whatever was necessary.

I wrote a motivational letter to AFS and got into the program. They had some fun and informative weekends, preparing us for culture shocks and language barriers. At the end of such a weekend, I had to choose three countries. I didn´t really know what to choose but I did have some preferences: somewhere hot (obviously), somewhere far away, and I wanted to learn Spanish. That left me with most of Latin America and so I randomly chose 3 countries that met these criteria. I wrote down Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras.

Late December I got a letter from AFS telling me that my application had been approved and that I would be sent to Mexico. From then on I was just counting down till the end of my high school career and the beginning of my adventure.

My year in Mexico was spent with a lot of ups and downs but I sure as hell learned a lot about myself. I switched host-families and schools in the middle of the year, traveled up and down and off course I learned Spanish.

Living in another country, another house made me realize more than ever how lucky I am to have grown up in Belgium, to have fantastic parents, to be surrounded with a supporting family. I didn´t really think I was going to spend such a long time abroad again ever. And yet, as soon as I started university, I was thinking of (and planning) an erasmus semester. If there was ever any doubt, I knew it for sure now, I will never be cured from the travel virus.