The day of our flight was my first time ever flying alone. At first I was very nervous because I didn’t know what to do. Not only was I flying alone, but it was international. It started off well when I got dropped off at the right terminal and I had to purchase a luggage as well as get my boarding pass. Our first flight was from Boston to Frankfort. Coincidentally there was another flight a few hours ahead of ours. I made the mistake by almost getting on the wrong plane which was going to Munich instead of Frankfort. I found it strange when the plane was boarding at 7pm when our flight was at 10pm, it turns out it was the wrong plane. Thankfully, I got on the correct plane which was approximately 7.5 hours long. Once we got off that flight it was pretty easy to go to the connecting flight. We had a 4 hour layover. In the meantime I read a little after that and tried a bbq chicken sandwich from the airport in Frankfort. The airline changed the gate last minute and I was waiting at the former gate without knowing they switched it. I panicked and ran hurriedly to the new gate. The 2nd flight was approximately 2 hours. After grabbing our luggage, we then boarded the group shuttle which was comfortable, had lots of leg room, and was air conditioned. I met the professor and my other classmates. Out of everyone in my session I only briefly knew one person. I settled into my room and unpacked my things. Once arriving in San Sebastián I noticed an immediate cultural difference. In order to turn on the lights in my hotel room, I had to leave the key card in the slot right next to the entrance door. Although it was around 9pm, a few classmates and I decided to grab dinner. I rode a bike for the first time in years. The bike was too big for me and I could barely touch the ground. I did not realize that the bike lanes also had traffic lights and I almost got hit by a car. Nonetheless, the bike ride on the path on the beach was eye-catching with a beautiful sunset. Another cultural difference I realized was how late they ate dinner in Spain. In the restaurant most people ordered drinks with their food and sat there for hours. The waiter did not come around to the table as often as America and you had to ask them for the check. The first night at the hotel was rough because of how hot it was in the room and the time zone difference. 

On the 2nd day in Spain, we had an early orientation at 8am. We left as a group at around 7:30am. We all got lost and were riding our bikes aimlessly in the street. Eventually at around 8:30am we arrived at Lacunza which is where our Spanish class was held. I was shocked when they immediately began speaking in Spanish to us. I did not know a thing they were saying. We went over the basics and played “Who Am I?” in Spanish. After that we split up into groups into the level we fit into, for example, beginner, intermediate, advanced. I was placed in a beginner class. The class was very involved because the teacher spoke mostly in Spanish and we responded in Spanish. I was expecting to learn basic vocabulary, but instead we jumped right into conversation and conjugations. At 11am we had a break. After the break, we went back to the classroom but to my surprise we had a different teacher. After class, a few of my classmates and I decided to explore the city a little more. We went to the beach and the water was a clear blue color and warmed by the sun. The sand was perfectly smooth and a golden brown, unlike the rocky beaches in the US. We realized we were hungry and decided to look for something to eat. We made the mistake of trying to find something to eat at 4pm and everything was closed. We soon learned our lesson to eat at certain times and at other times restaurants were closed. There is also not a major tipping culture in Europe. We were so hungry that we had to settle for gelato. We then biked back to the dorm to put our stuff away. My body was absolutely giving out at this point and once I hit the bed in my room I knocked out. However, we still had a whole day ahead of us and we had to meet up with our professor. He taught us some of the history about San Sebastián and pointed out some restaurant recommendations. After that, we parted and walked around aimlessly finding a place to eat until we ended up back where we started. We watched the sunset on the beach and headed back to the hotel. The sun is out for so long in a day in San Sebastián, you could get a million things done in one day.