A Single Girl Loose in Spain. Footloose and carefree are words we fancy as adults. Ah... to be young again. Well, guess what, we all were young once and those youthful experiences mold us into the responsible grownups we are today...supposedly. As a college student, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Spain. The following excerpts are from my journal as I recall my experiences and the lessons I learned...

Lesson #1: Jet lag is not a myth.

Hola! Today we arrived in Spain about 9:30 a.m. their time, which means we lost about 7 hours because Spain is 7 hours ahead of the U.S. The flight was not the greatest. We flew to Chicago, then had about a 3 hour layover (an hour and a half sitting on the plane) then we were off to Madrid (8 hours). It was fun once we arrived because we realized we were actually in Spain (the “we” I am referring to is the group from UNT. There are 31 of us; only 7 guys and the rest are girls). Everyone is really cool and interesting. We are going to stay in the hostel in Madrid the first week, then spend the next 4 weeks in Valencia with a host family. Anyway, after we got off the plane, we had a bus waiting for us with our guide, Miguel. He is really fun! We went to our hostel and waited forever to get in our rooms. Finally, Tacy, Jenny and I got in our room (we were last), then we freshened up, had our meeting and went to lunch at the Museo del Jamon. The best I can say about the food here is that it is different. After eating, we headed to the Royal Palace. It was really beautiful. The art work is amazing. However, jet lag started setting in and some of us started to get a bit cranky. We left there, but we didn’t take a nap because you aren’t supposed to when you are fighting jet lag, so we unpacked and got ready for dinner and going out. Oh, in Spain, they are on a different schedule than the U.S. They have a light breakfast in the morning, followed by a huge lunch (well, huge for them) around 2:30ish, then they have a small dinner around 9:30ish and they stay up really late because they practice the custom of siesta during the afternoon. So, we had a light dinner at El Jamonal and then had some cocktails at the Jamaica, which is a little café/bar next to our hostel.

Lesson #2: Public restrooms are a luxury.

Today was the worst day so far! First of all, we barely got any sleep (2 ½ hours) and we had to get up for a day trip to El Escorial (a monastery) and Valle de los Caidos (a monument for the deaths of people who died in war and a church). First we went to El Escorial (oh, the bus ride was about an hour and a half and it sucked because I got a little motion sickness) and we could not understand the tour guide. She only spoke Spanish and she had a really thick accent and she spoke very quickly. El Escorial was pretty much like an inside, decorative graveyard. Boring! Then, we drove to Valle de los Caidos, which was really cool to look at because it was a massive monument that was shaped like a cross. We ate some really bad food at a buffet and that’s when the trouble began. I have not been able to use the bathroom since I have been in Madrid and for me that’s a bit unusual, so of course, it all hit me at once when we were an hour and a half bus ride away from our hostel. We got back on the bus to leave, but a lot of people wanted to climb the top of the monument, so we stayed. Well, while they did that, I ran all over the place trying to find a bathroom. First, I asked a priest and he pointed me in one direction. Note: at this time I am in complete panic mode. The place is huge, so I have to run to the door, and of course, it’s the wrong one, so I finally find the right one and there’s a lady sitting at the desk. In a tizzy I say, “Donde esta el bano, por favor? Es un emergencia!” At this point, the (enter expletive here) says, No! The bathroom is prohibited to tourists and she then showed me to the door. So, I ran all the way across to the other side, and there was a huge group of little boys playing outside. I asked them to point me to a bano and instead they all attacked me. They surrounded me talking ninety to nothing in Spanish. Anyway, no bano on the grounds. Finally, the bus driver took me back to the place we ate and I got to use the bathroom there (a little). Well, the group got finished and walked to the bus, but we had already gone back due to my bathroom escapade, so they had to walk the other way to the bus, which was about a half a mile uphill. I felt absolutely awful. To make matters worse, the bus driver was practically yelling to our guide Miguel that we had to move the bus because I had “diarrhea”…so embarrassing! To make matters EVEN worse, I get another stomach attack and have to get Miguel to stop the entire bus, I get out in a private bathroom where there are machine-gun-armed guards, and ask if I can use the bano. All 31 members of the group sat still in the hot and humid bus while I used the bathroom. Just great! After the humiliation, I made it back to the hostel and just lied down for the evening. All in all, it was a pretty miserable day!

Lesson #3: Panicked breathing underwater will cause you to run out of oxygen.

Today was by far my absolute favorite (besides meeting Gabriel, the hottie in Madrid). We are in Ibiza and about fifteen of us met to go scuba diving. Upon arrival, we were amazed! The water was totally clear and a beautiful, aqua color. It was awesome! We were divided into three separate groups for diving. I was in the second group. There were four really handsome instructors and they got us suited up and gave us a short scuba lesson, and we were off. However, we didn’t go off in a boat or anything too complicated. We just swam out a bit and scuba’ed in somewhat shallow water to be safe. It was quite strange. The whole breathing thing was really different, but quite peaceful once you got used to it. We saw a plethora of fish and coral, but nothing too exotic because we didn’t go out that far. While we were down there, Eric swam by snorkeling and motioned for me to look at something (it was an octopus), but one of the instructors grabbed me and gave me the sign to go up, so I went. When we bobbled to the surface, he told me that I was just about to be out of oxygen so I had to come up before everyone else did. Esta bien. I guess I was breathing too much, but I didn’t realize it. A few times I felt panicked, so I must have used most of the oxygen then. Next, we goofed around on the beach and used the snorkel gear. I liked that better because I felt more in control and I could still see all the beautiful sea life. The beach was totally nude and many people were taking advantage of that (especially men, which was so weird). I did not participate! The instructors took some of us out on the boat for a ride around the Mediterranean. It was gorgeous! We decided to eat at a nearby café, scaling rocks to get there. We ran into some London guys about to jump off a cliff, but they were a bit scared, so we had a countdown for them and they did it. Later, they sat by us at the café and we chatted briefly.

Lesson #4: Goodbyes are bitter, but home is sweet.

What a crappy day! We left about 7:00 a.m. and took all of our junk and walked about a mile to a taxi. We told Isabel goodbye and it was kind of sad. Then, we met everyone at the Palau de la Musica for the last time. We got on the bus and headed for the airport. Miguel went with us. Checking in took forever. Miguel told us goodbye and started crying and that made all of us cry. It was sad. I will miss Spain. We took a short one hour flight from Valencia to Madrid and had about a two hour layover and got on a plane for J.F.K. in New York. We flew on that flight for eight hours. I tried to stay awake the whole flight because I was trying to overcome jet lag. The flight went by fairly quickly. We watched Sweet November, which made it seem shorter. Finally, we made it to New York and Tammy started singing “I’m Proud to be an American”. It was humorous! Then, we went through customs and had about a four hour layover there. It didn’t seem too long after we did all of the procedures that had to be done. We got on the plane for a three hour ride to DFW. I couldn’t fight it. I automatically fell asleep! However, I woke up occasionally, like for the wonderful airplane dinner. Finally, after about a 24 hour travel day, we made it home around 10:00 p.m. We were all excited to get off the plane and see everyone. Mom, Dad and Meem were waiting for me. It was good to see them. We waited for the luggage, and then took Meem home. We got home, watched the video and I went to bed with my dog, Thor. He looked so cute with his little lion cut. It’s great to be home, but I miss Spain and the whole group. We really bonded.

Although I do not think about my experiences in Spain every day, I do think of them fondly. It is an experience that has helped to shape who I am and how I view things. I love to share my travels with my friends, family and coworkers and I think it tells a little bit about me and who I am. This part of my life and the lessons learned do not define me, but are what help make me who I am today. The final lesson I learned was that a giant jelly roll in Spain is just as fattening as it is in the U.S. and you will gain weight, especially if you eat one every night around 3:00 a.m. right before you go to sleep!