{"id":209,"date":"2025-07-25T14:41:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T19:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/?p=209"},"modified":"2025-07-25T19:23:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T00:23:46","slug":"this-is-not-a-farewell-post-how-i-fell-in-love-with-a-city-and-14-strangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/2025\/07\/25\/this-is-not-a-farewell-post-how-i-fell-in-love-with-a-city-and-14-strangers\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Not a Farewell Post: How I Fell In Love With a City and 14 Strangers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\ud835\udde1\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude04 \ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddee\ud835\ude06\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When Can I See You Again?” By: Owl City<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

01:09 \u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u25cf\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500 03:37<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u3164 \u3164\u25c1\u3164 \u275a\u275a \u3164\u25b7 \u3164\u3164<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Munich Airport. Connecting Flight to Bilbao. Local time 10:14 AM<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see her in my peripheral vision walking up from behind me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHi,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m leaned over a trash can in the Munich airport. She grabs my hair for me and holds it back in a ponytail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m Sabrina. Do you have a hair tie?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m embarrassed as hell.<\/strong> My new classmates watch from the distance as I vomit into the trash can. On my first flight ever to Europe, I come to find out that I get severe airplane sickness. Mixed with the nerves of traveling alone for the first time and meeting the people I\u2019ll spend my next 3 weeks with in San Sebasti\u00e1n, the nausea took over and I could not<\/em> stop throwing up. Way to make a great first impression like I planned<\/em>, I\u2019m thinking to myself. Sabrina slides a hair tie off her wrist and hands it to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She leads me away to the rest of the group. Paige, Sandor, Lara and Jayna wait for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s how I started my trip to Spain back on July 6th,<\/strong> but today I didn\u2019t expect that everything would be so different. I didn\u2019t expect that I would have so much dread for returning home and leaving this place behind until next time. I never thought I would miss these newfound friendships so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Day trip with our class to the gorgeous small coastal town of Pasai Trintxerpe, the Basque Country<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I think back to this first moment<\/strong>, an embarrassing one to say the least, I never envisioned to be right here where I am today on the last day of our trip together. Getting off of the plane, I vowed to myself i\u2019d never do this again, never travel again, this was a mistake. Although it wasn\u2019t hard for me to change my mind after stepping into the city for the first time with fresh eyes. Looking around here at everyone today, I can\u2019t believe how much you can get to know someone in three weeks. Navigating an entirely alien environment together, attempting to communicate in a new language, and coordinating transportation together brings people closer together than you might think. Those who were once complete strangers are sitting around me as my friends. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chilling on Santa Clara Island with Jesse, Aava, Eleny and Paige<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professor Z. asked us to recount one of our highlights of the trip, a surprise, and a bucket list activity we have yet to accomplish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I expected to reminisce the most on the places I visited and the beautiful scenes<\/strong> I saw here in the city of San Sebasti\u00e1n. Do not get me wrong, this trip would not be half as impactful as it was if I was in any other country, in any other city. But today I want to say that the most important thing on this trip wasn\u2019t the insane spots, the marvelous beach days, or even the delicious Gilda. <\/em>I\u2019ve emerged from this experience whole heartedly understanding that the most incredible thing I\u2019ve experienced on this trip was getting to know each of my classmates and spending time with them in the city. Getting pintxos<\/em> (especially pintxo-pote<\/em>), planning beach days, shopping for souvenirs, riding bikes alongside one another, complaining about Spanish class – I could go on listing hundreds of things we ended up doing together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A competitive game of UNO on Ondaretta Beach<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am beyond grateful for the amazing people in Session 1<\/strong>. As soon as we landed I quickly connected with my newfound friends Jesse, Aava, Eleny, and Paige. We started to spill the chismes <\/em>(gossip) on the Santa Clara Island after our Ferry Ride, laughing and dancing together on the sand after ordering some delicious drinks. Soon after we began to spend time with the rest of the ladies, Evelyn, Lara, Sabrina, and Jayna, chatting about our lives back home and bonding over our trip. I won\u2019t forget laughing until 2 AM during late night Jackbox sessions in Jake\u2019s room with the dudes; we\u2019re never gonna look at corn on the cob the same. (If you know you know.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A great night of pintxos, conversation, and vino blanco on our last night out before departing home<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I know I\u2019m just sitting here reminiscing on all of these memories,<\/strong> but on my last day of these 3 weeks, that\u2019s one of my favorite things to do. We sat on the Zurriola Beach today with our towels connected to make one huge \u201cpicnic blanket.\u201d Before long we relocated due to the rain drizzling down on us, then clearing again an hour later. But little hardships like these never ruin our mood and we always work around them, because it seems to work out in the end every time. We passed around chorizo, cheeses, olives, and ate tortilla from one of JZ\u2019s favorite spots in Gros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Enjoying the view at Santa Clara Island, photo by Jesse<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professor Z. gave us a few last closing bits of advice before we parted ways.<\/strong> He expressed to us how this trip is just the beginning of our journey with traveling and seeing the world. He said to never stop following the voice that led us to say\u00a0yes\u00a0<\/em>to leaving the safeness of our home country and experience studying abroad. When you travel abroad, you learn to step out of your bubble of comfort. Before I came here, I expected to want to spend way more time alone. But I pushed myself to get out of my room and to send that message to the group chat.\u00a0What are we doing tonight?\u00a0<\/em>Despite being hella scared, wanting to make a great impression on everyone, and not knowing how people might perceive me, I realize now everything\u2019s gonna be way easier from now on. All I can say is thanks to everyone, because it\u2019s been a pleasure spending this trip with you. And it turns out that getting sick as a dog in the airport was 100% worth it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bas\u00edlica de Nuestra Se\u00f1ora del Coro, a beautiful cathedral in Gros<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want to call today\u2019s event with Professor Z. our \u201cFarewell Picnic,\u201d<\/strong> because all of us have already promised to see each other again when we\u2019re all back in Massachusetts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So for now, all I have to say is,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When can we do this again?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ud835\udde1\ud835\uddfc\ud835\ude04 \ud835\uddfd\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddee\ud835\ude06\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfb\ud835\uddf4: “When Can I See You Again?” By: Owl City 01:09 \u2501\u2501\u2501\u2501\u25cf\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500 03:37 \u3164 \u3164\u25c1\u3164 \u275a\u275a \u3164\u25b7 \u3164\u3164 Munich Airport. Connecting Flight to Bilbao. Local time 10:14 AM. I see her in my peripheral vision walking up from behind … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1612,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uml.edu\/san-sebastian1-summer-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}