My First Day in Spain

It’s day one in Alicante, Spain, and while I am currently mentally, emotionally, and physically drained, I have so far had an amazing time in a new country. Being on the airplane and sleeping in uncomfortable positions didn’t help with the jet lag that immediately hit me right after landing in Madrid, and throughout the whole time that I waited for my layover to Alicante, I was sleep deprived and on the brink of starvation and dehydration. To be quite honest, being physically prepared for the trip was much more difficult compared to socializing with others and making new friends. Throughout my whole plane ride, I was able to meet students from all over: Tennessee, Virginia, California, New Jersey, etc. 

Immediately, when I arrived in the airports in Spain, the entire vibe felt completely different. Unlike the hustling and bustling of passengers and TSA officers at JFK Airport, it was very much laid-back in Spain. Time seemed to move so much slower, and it would have been quite relaxing if not for the constant jet lag that I still faced. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to retrieve my luggage as it was still stuck in Madrid, but that didn’t keep me from having fun throughout the rest of the day. 

Once we left the airport, our group went to a simple, but beautiful hotel where we were able to settle in before we headed out to eat dinner. As all of us tried to decipher the words on the menu, we all ended up ordering different dishes so that we could share and try new foods. Before the main dishes came out, the waiters served us appetizers of salad, quiche, cheese, bread, and duck liver pâté. We also had main courses of pizza and pasta with different types of noodles and sauces. I had a taste of “spaguetti negro”, pasta that has squid ink mixed into its dough, and “tagliatelle al huevo”, a type of long, flat, ribboned pasta. Finally, our dinner ended with a plate of dessert that included brownies, cream puffs, cheese cake, and vanilla ice cream. Vanilla tastes totally different in Spain!

What surprised me a lot was the fact that Spain seemed to run on a completely different schedule. Even after our group of 41 students and 3 chaperones finished dinner at 10:30 pm, as we roamed through the charming, narrow streets of Alicante, you could still find people going about, with friends and families eating dinner in tables set up directly on the streets. 

Our chaperones did not hesitate to challenge us in speaking Spanish right away, and I definitely had a difficult time grasping the words and ideas that they were articulating, but in the end, it was clear that what mattered was that we tried our best in explaining our thoughts. A lot of pointing and hand motions went along with my words, and I often kept reverting between English and Spanish, and in the end, it just became a mix of two languages, or “Spanglish”.

Even though it has only been my first day in Spain, so far, it has been quite an adventure. 

- Tracy Jiang