Spanish Adventure

So, having just celebrated by 22nd birthday, I have come to a decision that will have profound implications for my life. Well, I say I have decided, but I am being especially indecisive about it. Just call me Harvey Twoface.

The decision? Whether or not to defer entry to medical school for a year. My choice amounts to:

• Start my medical degree in September, coming straight from a pharmacology degree from the same university
• Take a year out to travel, probably to Spain for 6 months, then possibly elsewhere, like Italy, Germany or Morocco (if I am feeling particularly adventurous)

Part of my reason for thinking about this is that I have lived in Glasgow all my life, and so my experience is somewhat limited. Don’t get me wrong, this is a wonderful city filled with great things; but it can be very insular, to the extent of some small villages even. And while I love it here, I do feel I should have some experience of life elsewhere. There’s a whole world outside the city walls! Or so they tell me.

Another big part of the reason is that I desperately want to learn another language, and my attempts while residing in this country are abortive at best. While you may point to this as a lack of commitment, I do feel that actually residing somewhere that the language is spoken will significantly bolster my flagging efforts to learn it. It’s either that or not speak for 6 months.

So where would I go to? In Spain, probably one of Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia. Madrid I have seen already to a tiny extent; and I have heard wonderful things about Barcelona. The agony of choice…

Anyway, you would be right in saying that I would appear to be leaning towards the defer option. It’s intimidating, as I’ll have to go off alone leaving family, friends and significant other behind, to a country where I don’t speak the language and I won’t have a steady job. And my brain has a decent chance of (further) atrophying and being unable to recommence academic pursuit some September 2010. And I might cock it all up or wind up dying in some Catalan separatist attack, but hey ho, I’ll give it a go!