After months of budgeting, booking flights, attending meetings and deciding what to pack, 10 UTC Communications students set off to explore Barcelona, Spain.
Responsible for booking our own flights, we coordinated with each other over Group Me months in advance, trying to get as many of us on the same flight as possible. In the end, four flew individually, two flew together out of Atlanta and the other four (myself included) flew out of Nashville.
Although our Nashville flight wasn’t until mid-afternoon, the four of us each arrived at the gate three to four hours early, restless with excitement and anxiety. We hurried onto our plane and then hurried off in Philadelphia for a two hour layover before finally catching our flight to Barcelona.
For the next eight hours, the four of us sat wedged between strangers as we tried to rest up for the long day ahead. Though unsuccessful in our efforts to get a modicum of sleep, we made it to Barcelona problem-free.
We went through customs, picked up our luggage and joined our group at the Cooofe Café. For the next three hours, we sat with our group in the hot, crowded café, staying awake by the mercy of coffee and conversation.
After settling in at our student accommodation, the Beyoo Marina, the 10 of us walked the streets of Barcelona with our resident director and proceeded to sit through our welcome meeting with our program leaders. With only around an hour of sleep in each of us, we struggled to trudge along to our welcome dinner. However, tasting the six different Spanish/Catalan dishes and the Tirimasu for dessert made the long day worth it.
Preparing for Barcelona has been one headache after another, but we’re finally here, already making memories that will transcend our lifetimes. The trip may be young, but I can already tell that all of those people who say “studying abroad changes your life for the better” are right. If someone had told me ten years ago that this is where I would be, I would have laughed, but now here I am in a beautiful foreign city with nine new friends already planning a trip to Paris. It absolutely blows my mind and I keep wondering when the dream will end, but I hope it never does.
My friends: here’s to the wait, here’s to the food, the drinks and the next three weeks, but mostly, here’s to the the ten of us living the dream.
Peace out,
Bethany
Oh, WOW! I am so glad the group made it safely to Barcelona. I look forward to reading more of your posts.