Well its been about two weeks since I got back from Spain and I confidently say that I adjusted pretty well to being back home. During my last week in Spain my stomach got very upset and I stopped eating a lot of the food, so I was pretty anxious when the day came to board my flight. I woke up at 5:30am to pack the remainder items I had out, like my face towel face wash, etc. We were told to be La hostal del cardenal at 6:45am because the bus would leave at 7:00 am sharp. So I woke up packed that my stuff and then ate my last Spanish breakfast, it was bittersweet because like I mentioned my stomach was over the food but I was really enjoying my time there. My host mom gave me a gift and told me not to open till I got home (which I did and it was an article of clothing that is used for flamenco dancing, she knew how much I enjoyed the dance class) and then my host dad drove my to the Hostal. We were the first ones there which was shocking because when they tell us a time they're usually on time and leave right then. So my and my host dad waited and more people began to show up. The bus didn't get there till around 8am, I wanted to start panicking but I knew they wouldn't make us miss our flight so I had to keep calm and realize that ill make it there in time. My was 10 hours 😔😔 and I couldn't really sleep on it (I slept for at most 40 mins). I chose to use this time to get caught up on all marvel movies, the airplane had just about all of the ones I need to watch. So I stayed up the whole trip watching movies and snacking on food I bought from Spain. *Tip definitely bring snacks before you get to the airport because when I got there I was kind of hungry (since I hadn't eaten since 6am) but the only fast food place they had was burger king and they wanted 3 euros for chicken nuggets, 4 euros for fries and like 5 euros for a drink. I couldn't bring myself to pay that much so I try to find other places that were near by but it was all too expensive so I just ate a few cookies I had and boarded the plane*.
After my 10 hour flight I still had another one that I had to catch, so I re-checked my luggage called my sister and dad to let them know my whereabouts and searched for something to eat. It was around 3-3:30pm when I reached my new gate and they were about to begin boarding at 4pm since I didn't want to wander off too far I went to the TGI Friday's express that was right across from my gate and shamefully paid $18 for a disgusting bacon ranch chicken sandwich. I should have just told them never mind and walked a little ways down from gate because my flight ended up getting delayed a whole hour. This flight was a bad one there was a screaming baby that didn't stop the whole two hours, it was freezing on the plane, and I had a man sitting next to me sucking his teeth every five seconds. Needless to say I didn't sleep on this plane ride either. I attempted, I put my neck pillow on, grabbed a blanket and put my eye mask on but it didn't work. But hey I was finally home so I just brushed it off. It was about an hour and half drive back to my place and I slept for most of it. When I got home I hopped in the shower and immediately went to bed. The following morning I woke up pretty early like 5:30-6:00 am and stayed up the whole day relaxing, catching up on my shows, this is how I spent the next day as well. Everything seem to be normal and I thought I didn't have jetlag but I was wrong (p.s. I got back Saturday night). That Monday I went out to do some errands and noticed that I was very tired by 2pm, so I cut my grocery shopping trip short and went home. By the time I got home I wasn't as tired anymore so I got on the phone with a friend and began reading a book. After about an hour I could barley focus, I desperately wanted to go to sleep but for some reason I couldn't, after about a 30 min struggle trying to get to sleep my deep slumber began. That day I slept from 3pm till 10am the next day. It was probably the best sleep ever, I would wake up to use the bathroom then go right back to sleep, and to be honest the only reason why I was up at 10am was because I had to get ready for work otherwise im sure I would've slept through that that day too. The same thing happened the next day too, I got off work at 2pm, hopped in the shower and slept till the next day. I knew jetlag was going to get me I just didn't know it was going to catch up that bad.
Upon arrival to the states, I didn't experience too much reverse cultural shock, but there were some things did stand out to me. When I walked into my apartment, I was disappointed because I had been used to an old, traditional apartment and mine was the complete opposite. It was all too new; from the appliances, to the wall paint, being a bright cool grey color. I didn't like any of it lol. Another thing that saddened me was the fact that I couldn't drink tap water anymore. I figured I didn't have any water back in my apartment, so I was going to have to ration the two bottles of vitamin water my sister got me. In Spain, they didn't buy cases of water and fill the fridge up with bottles. What they did was that they would get one giant gallon of water and a few bottles that fit like 3 liters of water in them and then you would either pour that into a smaller water bottle or pour that in a glass to drink. On days where I didn't have time to let the water cool in my bottle, I would put some ice cubes in a glass and get water from the sink and let me say, the water was very good; almost as good as bottled water. So when I got home, I was saddened that I could no longer do that because of how unhealthy the water is and the taste is awful. Another thing I realized was how much us Americans use our debit/credit cards pretty much for anything. In Spain, your bill had to be a certain amount or local stores wouldn't except cards, but here in America it doesn't matter. The last thing that "shocked" me was the weather. I was used to it being a tad bit cold in the morning, but here it was freezing in the morning and I kept forgetting to bring a hoodie with me so I was shivering when I went to work.
Overall I'm very satisfied with my program. I know I didn't do some of the things that I mentioned in previous blog posts, but I still had a great time. I went to another country (picked up pieces of that language), went to three cities in Spain, indulged in the cuisine, and above all, I got to be immersed in the language and culture. While I wouldn't say I'm fluent in the language, I definitely have more confidence in speaking it with other native speakers. Before, I would be too nervous that I wasn't making sense to them, but now I'm like forget it, I know enough words to describe to them what I'm talking about and most of the time they know what I'm saying. To help ensure I don't lose this momentum, I restarted watching a series on Netflix that I have seen a gazillion times and at first, I had the Spanish subtitles on (I did this while I was in Spain), but when I got home and went back to work, one of my coworker insisted on me telling her my experience in Spanish and when she asked me a basic question like "how many people went?" I couldn't understand her. That really shocked me and I realized I didn't need to be looking at the words, what I needed was to listen to the language, so I switched the audio over to Spanish and I have been watching the show that way and honestly, I've been able to understand it. I think that where I am now, in regards to knowing the language, is a good level and I think that's about as high as I will probably reach just because I don't have people to speak the language with, so I can't practice everyday, but I'm fine with that- just being able to listen to a show in Spanish and understand is a win for me. This program abroad has opened my eyes and allowed me to appreciate my culture as an African American woman and has given me the opportunity to see a different part of the world, which has inspired me to want to learn a new language and go to even more places around the world.
Thanks to everyone who has read all of my blogs and I hope I inspired some to take that leap and go study abroad because it truly is worth it!
Adios!
After my 10 hour flight I still had another one that I had to catch, so I re-checked my luggage called my sister and dad to let them know my whereabouts and searched for something to eat. It was around 3-3:30pm when I reached my new gate and they were about to begin boarding at 4pm since I didn't want to wander off too far I went to the TGI Friday's express that was right across from my gate and shamefully paid $18 for a disgusting bacon ranch chicken sandwich. I should have just told them never mind and walked a little ways down from gate because my flight ended up getting delayed a whole hour. This flight was a bad one there was a screaming baby that didn't stop the whole two hours, it was freezing on the plane, and I had a man sitting next to me sucking his teeth every five seconds. Needless to say I didn't sleep on this plane ride either. I attempted, I put my neck pillow on, grabbed a blanket and put my eye mask on but it didn't work. But hey I was finally home so I just brushed it off. It was about an hour and half drive back to my place and I slept for most of it. When I got home I hopped in the shower and immediately went to bed. The following morning I woke up pretty early like 5:30-6:00 am and stayed up the whole day relaxing, catching up on my shows, this is how I spent the next day as well. Everything seem to be normal and I thought I didn't have jetlag but I was wrong (p.s. I got back Saturday night). That Monday I went out to do some errands and noticed that I was very tired by 2pm, so I cut my grocery shopping trip short and went home. By the time I got home I wasn't as tired anymore so I got on the phone with a friend and began reading a book. After about an hour I could barley focus, I desperately wanted to go to sleep but for some reason I couldn't, after about a 30 min struggle trying to get to sleep my deep slumber began. That day I slept from 3pm till 10am the next day. It was probably the best sleep ever, I would wake up to use the bathroom then go right back to sleep, and to be honest the only reason why I was up at 10am was because I had to get ready for work otherwise im sure I would've slept through that that day too. The same thing happened the next day too, I got off work at 2pm, hopped in the shower and slept till the next day. I knew jetlag was going to get me I just didn't know it was going to catch up that bad.
Upon arrival to the states, I didn't experience too much reverse cultural shock, but there were some things did stand out to me. When I walked into my apartment, I was disappointed because I had been used to an old, traditional apartment and mine was the complete opposite. It was all too new; from the appliances, to the wall paint, being a bright cool grey color. I didn't like any of it lol. Another thing that saddened me was the fact that I couldn't drink tap water anymore. I figured I didn't have any water back in my apartment, so I was going to have to ration the two bottles of vitamin water my sister got me. In Spain, they didn't buy cases of water and fill the fridge up with bottles. What they did was that they would get one giant gallon of water and a few bottles that fit like 3 liters of water in them and then you would either pour that into a smaller water bottle or pour that in a glass to drink. On days where I didn't have time to let the water cool in my bottle, I would put some ice cubes in a glass and get water from the sink and let me say, the water was very good; almost as good as bottled water. So when I got home, I was saddened that I could no longer do that because of how unhealthy the water is and the taste is awful. Another thing I realized was how much us Americans use our debit/credit cards pretty much for anything. In Spain, your bill had to be a certain amount or local stores wouldn't except cards, but here in America it doesn't matter. The last thing that "shocked" me was the weather. I was used to it being a tad bit cold in the morning, but here it was freezing in the morning and I kept forgetting to bring a hoodie with me so I was shivering when I went to work.
Overall I'm very satisfied with my program. I know I didn't do some of the things that I mentioned in previous blog posts, but I still had a great time. I went to another country (picked up pieces of that language), went to three cities in Spain, indulged in the cuisine, and above all, I got to be immersed in the language and culture. While I wouldn't say I'm fluent in the language, I definitely have more confidence in speaking it with other native speakers. Before, I would be too nervous that I wasn't making sense to them, but now I'm like forget it, I know enough words to describe to them what I'm talking about and most of the time they know what I'm saying. To help ensure I don't lose this momentum, I restarted watching a series on Netflix that I have seen a gazillion times and at first, I had the Spanish subtitles on (I did this while I was in Spain), but when I got home and went back to work, one of my coworker insisted on me telling her my experience in Spanish and when she asked me a basic question like "how many people went?" I couldn't understand her. That really shocked me and I realized I didn't need to be looking at the words, what I needed was to listen to the language, so I switched the audio over to Spanish and I have been watching the show that way and honestly, I've been able to understand it. I think that where I am now, in regards to knowing the language, is a good level and I think that's about as high as I will probably reach just because I don't have people to speak the language with, so I can't practice everyday, but I'm fine with that- just being able to listen to a show in Spanish and understand is a win for me. This program abroad has opened my eyes and allowed me to appreciate my culture as an African American woman and has given me the opportunity to see a different part of the world, which has inspired me to want to learn a new language and go to even more places around the world.
Thanks to everyone who has read all of my blogs and I hope I inspired some to take that leap and go study abroad because it truly is worth it!
Adios!
Comments
Post a Comment