study abroad obsession

I think about studying abroad all. the. time.  Seriously.  It's a problem.  I look at the college's study abroad page on the website almost every day.  Nothing every changes.  But I keep checking.  Even though I'm committed to going to Italy at this point I still enjoy looking at all the other options the college offers.  I also look at some of the other schools I considered and schools my friends go to and see how their programs compare.  I have a google map thing where I have put little markers on all of the places I especially want to go to.  Most of them are in Italy and Spain and then there are some spots in Ireland and the UK.  Some of them are just those big name cities that all tourists want to see and some of the locations of shrines of saints or marian apparition sites.  I'm about to add Avila to the map as my spanish professor made it sound so completely amazing today when we began our discussion of St. Teresa of Avila.  He can make anything sound super interesting.  And he knows so many things.  It never ceases to amaze me the things that he says and how he can relate things that seem totally unrelated to each other.  I wish I could record him so I could have people experience what I experience at 2:00 every monday, wednesday, and friday.  But anyways.  It is going to be such a long semester waiting to hear if I get to go to Italy.  And it's like all I can think about.  I love that I'm facebook friends with some people that are there now.  Whenever they post pictures, I take the time to look at all of them.  Even if there are hundreds of them.  I can't even help it.  Last semester I followed blogs of people I barely knew because they were about them studying abroad.  I want to know everything about it.  And I want to experience it.  Over and over again if I could.  I also worry about the money I am going to need but don't have to spend there.  Money for traveling.  Money for buying souvenirs.  But mostly, I just can't wait to get over there. I don't even ever find myself worrying about the logistics of getting there or learning the language or being so far away from home.  None of that even matters.  I just want to be a world away from here.  Meeting new people and experiencing another culture.  And I know the idea in my head of Europe and study abroad is a little romanticized and more fantasy then reality, but I don't think it's possible to be disappointed by a study abroad experience.  I seriously can't wait.  It's going to be so fantastic.  November should hurry up and get here so I can know for sure that I will be going.  I turned in my application like literally the first day you could, but still I want to see it in writing that I will absolutely positively be going to Italy next semester.  I wish they would let you know earlier.  Then I could maybe focus a little more on all the boring day to day stuff I have to do here.  Or maybe it would only leave me with a greater inclination to look up words and phrases in Italiano.  But seriously I looked up and taught myself the Italian alphabet the other day.  Yep that's what I do with my spare time.  I think I might have a problem.