The Return
Long flights. I wasn’t really dreading the flight to Barcelona when this trip all started. Mainly because I just had a short 3 hour flight first, then the long 9 hour flight but it was overnight and over the ocean and half of Europe. I also had so much adrenaline that it didn’t even bother me. Well that was not the case for the flight home. I sat at the middle of the plane and scored a window seat. 10 hours won’t be so bad right? Wrong. Only an hour in and I had to use the rest room, but my politeness got in the way and I refused to wake up the older gentleman next to me and the child in the aisle seat. So for 9 hours I sat there with a full bladder, just trying not to think about it! On the bright side, I had wifi and my mom to text during the flight!
I had a 5 hour layover in Miami. Had customs not taken so long I would have left to explore Miami a bit, but after I stood in line at customs for nearly 2 hours, I decided to find dinner, my terminal and watch Netflix until my flight left.
I traveled for nearly 22 hours by the time I made it home in Lincoln and I had been awake for over 24 hours! I was exhausted to say the least!
Unpacking. Unpacking might be the most horrible task to complete after travel. Even if a trip was 2 days I still hate doing it, so you can only imagine how I was after 6 weeks of travel! My large suitcase was filled to the brim and weighted nearly 65 pounds. In fact, did you know that if you go over the weight limit (50 lbs) they tag your bag with a big ol’ warning sign? I feel really bad for the folks who load the luggage into the airplanes, I tried to balance the weight out with my other smaller suitcase, but the Barcelona airline counter rushed me and said I didn’t have time. (For the record, I had time… Enough time for the airline counter guy to leisurely ask me questions…) My smaller suitcase was about 20 pounds and just as full! I still feel like I haven’t fully unpacked yet, but maybe one day I’ll get that feeling!
Sleep. Since I barely got any sleep while on both my flights, I was a complete ZOMBIE when I finally got home. I was punch drunk, slap happy, or whatever you want to call it when my body functions with my brain turned off. I didn’t believe in “jet lag” until it actually happened to me. It took me a few days, maybe even a week, before I finally felt like I had adjusted to a 7 hour time difference!
Money. Boy oh boy, this is a funny one. Before I left for Barcelona, my mom and I broke down a budget, even made a google spread sheet so both of us could access it and update it regularly. I made sure my payments here at home (rent, car payment, etc) were on autopay and that I had money in that account so it could all just happen without me having to think about it while I was gone for 6 weeks. I learned things like which cards had foreign transaction fees and how much extra that might cost me, and I learned which ATM card would cost me less to withdraw money. I became a pro at exchange conversion, no matter if I was using a Euro, an English Pound or a Swiss Franc. All this preparation doesn’t ease the sting of how much it actually costs to travel abroad for 6 weeks. I took a few trips out of Spain, and those cost me more than just an arm and a leg, but YOLO am I right?? (I’m clearly still stuck in 2011.) Actually, I’m not that spend happy, in fact I’m a saver by nature and a second guesser (surprised?) when it comes to spending money. So, when I say these trips cost me an arm and a leg, that’s an exaggeration. If you’re already in Europe and you have the time and money to get to another country, by golly do it! When else can you fly to Italy for $157.50? That’s what it cost me for a round trip ticket to Italy for a 4 day weekend. Would you have skipped that and thought, “hmm, I might want to eat when I finally get back to the states.” NAH. Well this left me broke when I got home. I’m not talking the, “I have money in my account, but its only for bills,” I’m talking, “My account balance is a giant goose egg with cob webs forming.”
A few days after my return I worked a shift at The N Zone for the Def Lepard/Journey concert. This shift and the tips I’d take home at the end of the night was supposed to help me breathe a little. Well a series of unfortunate events unfolded and my car was towed and I found out when I was off work at 1am. Ironically enough, the amount needed to get my car back was the exact amount I made at N Zone. 8 hours working in a bar downtown with drunk people for nothing. 🙂
Reality. Life slapped me in the face when I got home. Not because I had a million things to do necessarily, but because I was used to the very relaxed lifestyle I had in Barcelona. While there, I didn’t start class until noon and didn’t have homework like I do in normal classes at UNL. So my list of responsibilities was very short there, which is how you want it. You need to experience the culture and the experiences while studying abroad, not sit in your room doing homework. But, now that I’m home it’s back to: go here, do this, pick up that. Now, I am not complaining at all, it was just quite the adjustment getting back into the swing of things! And much like my unpacking, my sleep, my bank account, I’m just not fully there yet and today marks one month stateside.
Photos. Organizing photos to share was a much bigger task than I thought it would be. I saved them all in a format I needed for class, which of course was not a format that is user friendly for uploads and sharing. So I spent a lot of time converting files, and of course sorting them. I had photos on my camera and on my phone and getting them all in one location was not easy. I’m still not sure I’ve got them all. And the sad reality of it is, I realize now I didn’t take nearly enough photos. My home city, Barcelona, has barely any photos. How did that happen?! Mostly because I was busy doing my thing everyday and enjoying it all, but still, I’m saddened I don’t have more photos to share and to hold onto for memories. Even Madrid and Costa Brava are a pretty sad collection of photos. Either way, I’ve compiled them to the best of my ability, so please find them on my photos page!
This last step wraps up the travel portion of this blog. I wish I’d had the time to update more often, but I’m also glad I was so busy that updating was a challenge. It means I lived the way I wanted to while abroad, busy and constantly engaged.
