Spain: the aftermath

My husband has been after me to update my blog which is suffering a new post drought thanks to my recent return to the real world. What he really wants is for me to recount my time in Spain in full, no easy task.

You see, despite my smiling face in many of my photos, my two and a half months in Spain were not the mostly-easy adventure I had been anticipating. In fact, just about everything about my study abroad experience in Spain was surprising, often rather unpleasantly so.

Rather than rehash all of the dirty [and believe me they are] details of my ten weeks in Spain, I though I'd just share a few of the things I learned while I was there.

1) If your flight is longer than 6 hours, pay the extra money and fly business class. You'll regret it if you don't.

2) No matter how you say it--two and a half months, ten weeks, 71 days--it's still a long, long time to be away from home, especially if you're married.

3) There is absolutely no way to pack light for ten weeks away from home.

4) However much you pack (90 pounds or 900) you will never have everything you want from home, never mind the things you need.

5) Roommates are best when they're heavily screened for undesirable behaviors such as filthiness, thievery, and general lack of consideration for others.

6) Despite what everyone in Spain may tell you to the contrary, ham is NOT the perfect accompaniment to every meal.

7) Coffee, wine, beer, and food all taste better when you can eat them at a table outside in the sunshine. Especially if the street has been closed to automobile traffic to make way for said table.

8) Life without a car is possible. Enjoyable even.

All joking aside, the ten weeks I spent living in Úbeda were, at times, nightmarish. I had to deal with things I never imagined possible. Granted, most of the problems I encountered had to do with my fellow classmates and not with Abadat Escuela or the city of Úbeda and its inhabitants, but there were problems nonetheless and they served to make my stay in Spain [during the first five weeks] very nearly unbearable.

Imagine my surprise, then, when upon driving out of the city for the last time (very fittingly to the musical accompaniment of "It ain't over 'til it's over") I found that I was sad to go. Overcoming homesickness and horrid roommates, I was shocked to discover that I was coming away with a few more good friends and lots of experiences to laugh about in the years to come. More than anything, I realized that despite the drama and frustration and bad food, this small Spanish city had managed to steal a place in my heart.