As I sit surrounded by my earthly possessions while packing for my semester abroad, I have devised a new game to keep things interesting. I call it the 2016 NCAA Men’s Packing Finals. It functions as a tournament where my clothes are first split into two piles. The first, the clothes I hate and haven’t worn since high school. The second, my Johnny Manziel shirt. Since the Manziel shirt has proven its worth many times, it gets an automatic bye to the finals. The rest are put through a rigorous selection committee and seeded. Seeds 9-16 are immediately put into the straight to Goodwill pile. Seeds 1-8 then face a tough competition to either join me on my European adventure, or remain unfolded and crammed into my dresser for the year.

It has been fun finally deciding which of my clothes are too plebeian for Europe (and then picking them anyways). At this point I’ve given up hope of out styling those damn Spaniards and have decided to go for the rugged Yankee cowboy look instead. With hipster glasses and floral button downs galore.

With a week to fit in as much American food, and by American I mean bastardized Chinese, Mexican and Italian, as I can, my stomach is ready for a more cultured palette.

My Spanish is passable, my wallet is fullish of Euros, and my excitement is at an all time high.

Tune in next week for a quick Spanglish lesson, plans for a 21st birthday in a country that won’t understand American “traditions” and numerous photos that I can rub in all of your faces.