I’ve been wrong about a lot of things here in Barcelona.
First, I was wrong for how long it would take for me to feel at home. I thought it would take six weeks, but apparently all it takes is a memory-foam mattress pad and my favorite pillow. The biggest obstacle to that feeling so far is the milk. I really like drinking milk straight up, and it tastes too strong here (even though I got the nonfat kind). It’s good for cereal, at least, but that’s a pretty small consolation.
The partying is exactly as amazing and terrible as I expected, but my primary reason for being afraid that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the party scene is that I didn’t want to miss out on making friends with people if they went out and I didn’t.
Luckily, I’m in the Consortium for Advanced Studies in Barcelona (CASB) program, and all the other kids on the program or in my dorm are from primarily Northwestern and Brown, but also Cornell, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania. Not exactly party schools. I think I’ll be able to keep up with them, if not the Spanish. The key to staying out super late, 4 or 5 a.m. usually, also, is apparently starting really late. Duh.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the nightlife isn’t awesome. A little bit about me: I love the Keg on a Monday. It’s kind of an obsession. I love dancing, I love meeting people through dancing, I love getting drunk and being happy and having a good time. Barcelona is the Keg on steroids. It’s perfect. But I’ll save details for after I’ve sampled more of it.
I was wrong that I wouldn’t make friends right away. Like I said, the people are all from schools similar to Northwestern so it’s really easy to get along with most of them.
I was right, however, that the first couple of days here were going to be tough in terms of missing my boyfriend. I was pretty happy that I could call him at 4 a.m. that first night because of the time difference so he could calm me down, but I know I can’t keep doing that. The physical separation is there, but I’m still working on establishing that emotional separation. Since we decided to go with an open relationship, due to the length of time apart, I know I can’t survive unless I start thinking about him less.
It does help that I’m not remotely attracted to any of the people here, on the program or not. I do have a soft spot for goofy, open-minded Jews though, so if any of those come along I might change my mind. Unfortunately, they’re pretty rare in España.
Read Staci’s previous post | Read Staci’s next post | Meet the rest of our study abroad bloggers.