Well today marked the day that I have had one of each of my classes. I am so happy to be sitting in my bed, knowing I don't have to wake up tomorrow at any specific time (although the loud/obnoxious/irritating/etc/etc construction will most likely wake me up) and it's the best feeling. I hope this isn't an indication for how the whole semester is going to be. Hope for best, expect the worst or however that phrase goes.
**DISCLAIMER: This is probably going to sound bratty because I'm complaining about total first world problems, but I have to let it out somewhere and I feel like I have a right to be frustrated about what's happening here. So with that said, proceed at your own risk. **
Today also marked the day that I'm feeling a lot of things and I don't know how even figure them out in my own head, but I'm hoping writing them down will make things a little clearer. First off, Suffolk Boston is unorganized and just kind of not the best college in general, at least for me. It has its perks that made me choose it, don't get me wrong, but I definitely should've taken the college process more seriously. To be honest, I'm surprised I even made it to college with how little planning/everything else that I didn't do. I love Suffolk's location in Boston, and they have an amazing study abroad program. I'll most likely finish my 4 years there because I'm almost half way done and I've made great friends and I don't want to start all over. Plus I can always go to school somewhere else after my undergrad years, but anyways, I digress. Obviously I can't complain because here I am in Spain and I decided to come extremely last minute but was still accepted and I'm here and everything is fine. Now let me add that Suffolk Madrid has been crazy hectic from the start. We waited hours and hours the first day we were there because they hadn't planned things out. Then it was our metro passes...oh my lord.
The metro, as I've mentioned before, is amazing. They also have metro passes that are 30 euro a month for anyone under 22 years old, and with 30 euro you can ride the train/bus unlimited for a full 30 days. Perfect. During one of our orientation days, they gave us the forms to fill out, told us it would take 5 days, and in the meantime you can get 10 ride passes for 12.20 euro and that was the best option. With us going to Seville that weekend and only having to get back and forth from our apartments to school a few times it seemed wonderful. Then we get back to Madrid and they tell us that it will take 15 days for our passes. Not so wonderful. They told us this on Tuesday and our classes started on Wednesday, and on Tues/Thurs I have a 6 hour break between classes. This means that I would be taking the train a total of 4 times in one day alone, and with the 10 day passes I would be spending more money in about a week than I would in a whole month. The whole thing is just frustrating, and everyone else here was just as annoyed as me.
Then, we got handed a schedule for the whole semester. It was nice to have everything mapped out for us and whatnot. But with this came more issues. In our tuition, we have included one cultural trip. Lisbon, Portugal was the most appealing and the trip that I, along with some of my friends here had signed up for. I'm also in an astronomy class that has a trip to the Canary Islands. Both are amazing, amazing opportunities, and of course are scheduled at the same time. Because I wouldn't be able to go to Lisbon anymore, I bought a ticket for late May to go to Porto, Portugal, so I would be able to at least visit the country before I depart back to America. This ticket doesn't allow for name changes meaning I couldn't sell the ticket, and is also non-refundable. I wasn't worried about it because I didn't think anything would interfere. Today, when I get to my astronomy class, we find out that the dates on the schedule were completely wrong. This was good and bad. It was good because I would be able to go to both Lisbon (Which is "free" because included in my tuition), which multiple people have said is the most amazing city, and the Canary Islands. The bad part was I just bought a ticket to go to a different part of Portugal because I thought I wasn't going to be able to go. Also, Delaney and I were planning on going to Amsterdam on March 22-24 because this is one of the free weekends that we both had that was also during the tulip festivals which would be amazing, yet this now interferes with the actual, correct date of the Canary Islands trip. As with the metro pass, I am not the only one dealing with conflicts because of the school's mix ups. One of my friends switched her cultural trip from Lisbon to Rome, along with her best friend so they could go together, and now she won't be able to go to Rome because of the Islands date. Everything is just a mess with this.
As I disclaimed above, I know that it's pretty ridiculous to write a post this long full of complaints. So many people would kill to have this opportunity. I am trying to go with the flow and not worry about the second trip to Portugal I bought a ticket for and instead accept the fact that I will have one last opportunity to travel to a beautiful place I have never been and may never be again. Thinking about how the money I spent on the ticket could've gone to a different country I haven't yet visited is just incentive to come home and work my butt off so I can pay back my parents and still visit somewhere else. Being in Europe for one very short semester and having severe, severe wanderlust your whole life and finally being in a place that makes it easy to travel is way more stressful than I ever thought it would be. I feel like I don't have any time to go to the places I want to see, and having to schedule things in advance to assure you get a good deal is hectic. My brain is in a very frantic state right now. Everyday stress and anxiety just adds to this state of mind. I think after these 4 months I will forever have dark circles under my eyes, but hopefully for good reasons. They haven't gone away yet. So now, I leave you as I finish drinking my legal wine, eat dinner at 11:15 pm which is totally normal here, and learn to appreciate the bumps in this beautiful road.
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