Premature Thoughts from the Couch

I am sitting on the couch in my living room watching my newly found (though belated) obsession, Gossip Girl. My bags are in the next room almost completely packed, yet it feels just like any other day of summer vacation. The reality that I will be leaving tomorrow has honestly not hit me. Maybe it’s the 22 hours of travel or the chaos of 3 connecting flights that clouds my comprehension. But despite my inability to wrap my head around it, I will be in Brazil very soon.

This trip will be the first time I have ever left the country. It seems logical to say that I am a little nervous, but I honestly don’t think I am. My curiosity and my longing for a new adventure dominate my thoughts, leaving no room for travel anxieties. I am looking forward to being in an entirely new place. I am ready to experience a new culture. I want to absorb as much of the language and lifestyle as I can. I am excited to be surrounded by the festivities of the World Cup. It is a privilege to be able to study sports in the presence of such a huge event. And I am thrilled to be learning about one of my greatest passions from an academic point-of-view because I have never had the opportunity to do so before.

There are many things I hope to make out of this trip:

• I hope to gain a strong foundation in Portuguese. Coming in not even knowing how to say “Hello”, I don’t expect fluency. But I want it to be strong enough that I can continue to build once I am back at Princeton.
• I hope to immerse myself in sports- both academically and physically. I am hoping to play a great deal alongside my studies.
• I hope to find delicious, fresh coffee and fruits.
• I hope to create many adventures that are worth telling and re-telling. I don’t want to just walk through Rio de Janeiro and observe, I want to live there and experience more than the average tourist.
• I hope to meet many new people. I know this trip will bring new amazing, unique, and beautiful people that will teach me more than school work alone can do. That is what I look forward to most.

I have so many thoughts and expectations for Brazil- for this trip that seems to be farther away than time is telling me. So far that it probably won’t hit me until my plane lands in Rio. Regardless, I am very excited for this adventure. Thinking about it makes me want to get up and do anything really… I can’t sit still! But I have an episode to finish. So I think I will.