Submitted by Kailey Schissler on the 2019 summer session program in Granada, Spain sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
Today is my last day in Spain, and I am so sad to go. I just completed finals, went to the farewell dinner, and packed. It is hard to believe it has already been a month. I spent my free weekend in Barcelona. I saw park Güell, the Sagrada Família, Barceloneta Beach, and the Barcelona Zoo. We also explored the area and visited some shops.
One struggle I faced was traveling back to Granada from Barcelona. First, our flight started boarding late. We were supposed to leave at 8:30 pm, but we were not even on the plane yet. I had noticed that the sky looked gray, and hoped it wouldn’t rain. However, we were not that lucky. We had to wait on the runway for about an hour for the storm to pass. At 10:00 pm, the time we were supposed to land in Granada, we finally were able to take off. Once we were in Granada, we felt the plane descend, but then felt the plane go back up. At that point, the pilot announced we had to go to Malaga because we couldn’t land in Granada due to weather. We landed in Malaga around midnight. Once in Malaga, someone was supposed to lead us to the buses that would take us back to Granada. However, there was no person to be found so my roommate and I ran around the airport trying to find the bus, until finally finding someone to ask where to go. We ended up waiting two hours for a bus to come. Once we were finally able to get on a bus, we took the one and a half hour drive to Granada, and we were dropped off at the bus station. It was around 3:30 in the morning, and given this time, there was one taxi waiting, and two buses full of people who needed to go home. We waited in line as taxis slowly started showing up. Luckily, we were near the front of the line. Once in our taxi, our driver was very friendly and telling us how he was going home when he got a call saying people were stranded at the bus station. We told him we were very grateful he came. Even at 4:00 in the morning, the driver was very kind and talkative. We got home a little after 4:oo am,when we had expected to be home around 11:00 pm. Considering we had our finals the next day, we went right to sleep. Although it was a very stressful situation, we already laugh about it. I wanted to tell this story because not everything is going to go your way when you travel abroad. It is important to stay positive and try to work out the problems. Overall, I would recommend a study abroad program to everyone. It is a once in a lifetime experience to live in another country, whether it’s for a month or three months.
