The plane ride to Spain took a total of 7 hours. Before arrived at the airport we did not know our seat set up, so you can imagine all of us in a clump asking each other what row our seats were in. Personally, I have never been out of the country so riding in an international plane made me very nervous. The best part of the plane ride was that each seat had its own individual screen with lots of recent movies (even some spanish films!), tv shows, music, and games. I was one of the lucky ones who got a window seat, and my oh my the view was amazing. The sky ranged from a rainbow colored sunset above the clouds to a dark and starry sky over a black ocean. I watched in total 3 movies and finished my summer reading on the plane which is what I call very productive.
Afterward we went through customs for an hour or so due to the fact that the line was insanely long. Then after hunting for our luggage on the conveyor belt we took 2 big buses to shuttle us from the Madrid airport to Zaragoza. The bus ride took 4 hours most of which I slept through, but I did get to enjoy the scenery which looked like a mix between sunflower farms and the Grand Canyon.
This next part was the most nerve racking. We went through this whole process of waiting in the bus for the SYA teacher to call our names so we could meet our families, and it felt a bit like when you come home from a camp trip and they reunite you with your family. I was greeted by my sister, Julia, and my spanish mom, Mercedes. We then took a taxi all to their apartment, which from the balcony you can see Zaragoza stretch over the horizon.
My room is a bit larger than a single room in college and I have a small bed, desk, and closet. My brother and sister live at home and are the two rooms next to me. My favorite little companion though is their dog Quena who loves belly rubs. As I write this I just finished dinner with my family (at 9 pm) which was probably my 6th meal of the day, (1 with my family at 8am, 1 at the airport at 3pm, then 2 on the plane, 1 on the bus, and finally the dinner with my family). To say the least I am stuffed beyond imagination. It's weird to think that I left in the afternoon of thursday and now am in the evening of Friday.
A tip of advice: when doing a year abroad you pretty much have two options to avoid a painful jet lag. 1.) you stay awake the entire time until it becomes nighttime in the new country or 2.) Sleep every second you can like on the plane, on the bus, waiting in the customs line, etc. Sleep is super important! Without my nap on the bus ride I probably wouldn't have understand my family as well, which by the way was super hard! My years of spanish help the transition, but the language barrier is definitely real. Well that's all for today unless we do something tonight. I'll keep you posted! and if i don't....
Goodnight, Good morning, and Good afternoon! :)
-Lauren Archer
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