Third time’s the charm?
Hurtling across the Atlantic at 627 miles per hour, I couldn’t help thinking about previous trips to Spain.
When we landed in Sevilla this afternoon, it was my third time entering the country.
The first, a brief stay during a family trip through several European countries, seems like forever ago. I was about 10, and I have only two vivid memories: 1. Being kicked out of a street tourist gift shop because two of my brothers and I didn’t know what we wanted and 2. Forgetting my passport at a hotel and being grilled by U.S. embassy officials before being able to go home.
The second was more recent but just as disastrous. Visiting my brother on his own study abroad trip four years ago, we ran out of money, could not get any funds wired to us for 24 hours and literally stole Burger King coupons so we could eat (I distracted the guy at the register, Danny snatched the coupons).
This trip will, of course, be different for a lot of different reasons. Staying with a host family, taking classes, actually knowing Spanish, etc. And it’s off to a fantastic start. I love my host family (there are four of them- a married couple and their two young children), their home is in a great location and has Internet, the food’s great and I could go on. We even got free shots at our first Spanish bar.
Still, I’m expecting things to go spectacularly wrong. And to some extent I hope they do; what fun would it be if it didn’t?
It’s off to a delightful start already—my luggage did not get make it on the plane from Indianapolis with me, and should arrive in Spain in a couple days. Until then, I’m wearing the same clothes and hoping nobody notices.
I will be blogging my adventures in Spain on the195.com, a site for Northwestern students studying abroad. Please follow me there.
