Hey guys! I’ll be returning to Spain in a few months to teach English, so I have a new blog to chronicle my adventures! Head on over there, where you can read my latest entries (and many more to follow), choose to subscribe, and learn more about the program I’ll be doing in the fall.

Click here to visit it! See you there!

It’s been a good run, original Spain blog Entries from here have been cross-posted on the new one.

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As I look forward to my next adventure in Europe (I’ll do a more detailed post later, but, long story short, I was admitted to that program in Spain I previously mentioned, placed in Andalucía, but haven’t yet made any decisions — though you’d have to be crazy to say no, right?), I realize I still haven’t finished blogging about all of my fabulous voyages this past year, so get on that, I must!

I last wrote about spending my 21st birthday in Mallorca, a lovely trip indeed. The following weeks also included two day trips: to the Castilla-La Mancha town of Cuenca, back to Segovia, and to the Castilla y León town of Salamanca. Before I proceed, here, have some pictures.

Colorful buildings in Cuenca.

Cuenca’s famous casas colgadas, or hanging houses. Photo stolen from the interwebz because I didn’t have a good shot of them.

Overlooking Segovia.

Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor.

My next trip was to Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, which are located off the coast of Morocco. I never thought I’d be taking an island vacation in the middle of final exams, but final exams at Complutense are spread out over, like, an entire month, so I had plenty of time to live it up.

My friend Robin had an exam rescheduled, so I ended up flying into Tenerife on my own, getting a ride from the hostel owners to the hostel, and spending the afternoon and evening relaxing in the room and enjoying the cool ocean breeze. Ah, bliss. I spent some time meandering around the area, along the beach, and checking out the sites. There weren’t a ton of people around or a lot to see, but that made it all the nicer.

Beautiful, especially after living for almost a year in a city as far away from the ocean as Madrid.

Robin arrived the next morning, and we continued meandering. Like Mallorca, this was a very laid-back vacation rather than a rushed, action-packed “Ahhh we have to see thirty-two cities in two days!” trip like many earlier in the year had been (like I’ve mentioned before, both had their merits, but as the year was winding down, chill beach vacations were perfect). We visited some touristy resort areas that looked straight out of Hawaii, stole a swim in another hotel’s pool, splashed in the waves, and generally had a lovely, lovely time.

One of the resorts we stumbled into.

The following day, we took a bus into Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the main city on the island, where we had a slow-paced day wandering through shops and a botanical garden and singing Shakira’s “Waka Waka” about six million times (this was right before the World Cup, so the song was everywhere). We ended the night with some gross fake American food, a stroll past karaoke bars (my favorite was the one where a guy in a cowboy hat was singing “Peaceful, Easy Feeling” by The Eagles, which summed up how I felt in Tenerife), and a moonlit walk along the beach (sounds romantic, eh? Too bad we weren’t joined by guapo Spanish men) before returning to Madrid the following morning.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Reopening these memories is making me hardcore nostalgic. Who wants to fly out to Tenerife with me tonight?

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I graduate from UCLA in seven months, and that’s a crazy thought. But while it’s rather scary, it’s also incredibly exciting because I plan to spend some time living abroad before I jump into my career (and possibly grad school before that). My two main ideas are 1) to find a way to work/volunteer and live somewhere in Latin America for a few months or 2) to return to Spain to teach English for a school year.

The first would be fantastic because it would give me a chance to be introduced to a new part of the world while still using and developing my Spanish skills. I’ve yet to find a great program that would allow me to live there, however, as most require you to pay them to work for them. Silly, right? On the other hand, Spain’s government has a program that would be ideal. I’ve mentioned it before, referring to it as the Cultural Ambassadors Program, but the correct name seems to be the North American Language & Culture Assistants Program or auxiliares de conversación. Through this program, you spend 12-16 hours a week as an English teaching assistant for a school year and get paid €700 a month (the equivalent of about $1000, enough to get by on Spain’s cheap living costs, especially if you work as a private tutor on the side). Sweet deal, right?

The application opened last week, and, finally getting a much-needed break from all that has kept me busy this quarter, I submitted the online part of the application last night. I’ve gone back and forth about whether I want to do this program or not, but I talked about it with a few people at a study abroad returnee conference I attended last weekend (the conference itself was unhelpful, but this conversation was not!), and it’s since been back on my radar. The program application is free, and the sooner you submit, the higher your chances of being placed in your desired region are, so I figured I might as well send in my application now.

While doing so, I had a bit of a panic attack. Was this really what I wanted to do? Of course, submitting the preliminary application and choosing to actually go are very different things, and the decision to go won’t come for quite some time, but I had an enormous lump in my throat as I was overwhelmed with stress over the decision. Suddenly, the bad memories from my year abroad came rushing back, and they were all I could think of. See, I’m very happy here in the U.S. Sure, I’m not flying off to a foreign country every weekend, meeting new people constantly, having unforgettable experiences almost daily, but life in one’s native country is easy. You know where to go and how to get things done, and you’re surrounded by friends and family. Being in a foreign country, on the other hand, is fabulous, but it can also be very challenging and lonely. Last year may have been the best year of my life, but I also experienced the lowest lows of my life while abroad. Am I capable of doing another year in Spain? Would it be easier to just stay here? These questions only exacerbated my panic attack, because if I’m not 100% excited to go back to Spain, who am I? Isn’t adoring Spain a huge part of my identity? Sounds silly, but it all felt very dramatic in the moment. We young people are very good at melodrama.

However, apparently it was mostly the stress talking, because as soon as I reread the program manual and realized I didn’t have to submit documents (including a letter of recommendation, academic transcript, personal statement, etc.), immediately, I did a 180, and, suddenly, all I could think about was all the reasons I adore Spain and how much I can’t wait to go back. Yes, it would be easier to stay in the U.S., but I have my entire life to live here. And when else will I have the freedom to get paid to live in Spain for a year? It’s a pretty difficult opportunity to pass up. I’ve been asked the question, “But haven’t you already done Spain?” My answer is no. 10.5 months is not enough time to get to know a place, I’d be living somewhere other than Madrid, and I’d be using this year to immerse myself in Spanish culture far more than I did last year. So I’ve been spending the past 24 hours or continuing to research the program as much as I can and getting very eager to go back.

Perhaps my feelings and circumstances will change and I won’t end up being an auxiliar de conversación, but I love being able to think about this option now. If I don’t do it, I’m sure I’ll find a way to travel in some other capacity (and then probably do a year of grad school, then start working), or if I do it, I could probably even do this roughly August through June, then work/volunteer in Latin America in the fall, and, if all works out, do USC’s one-year master’s program in online community management from January to December while working or interning, which will then lead into my career (I’m currently hoping will be something in the social media industry).

This year may be kind of a terrifying one because being a senior means having to figure out what the heck I do next, but I’m lucky to have some incredibly exciting options. I love it.

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As the only significance of the age 21 in Spain is that you no longer get the youth rate on your Madrid monthly metro pass (and, actually, that cutoff was just changed anyway), my 21st birthday was not filled with all that comprises a stereotypical American 21st birthday celebration (namely alcohol). So I never got a true 21st birthday, but I did get to spend it in an island in the Mediterranean, so, yeah, I think I win.

In the days leading up to my birthday (and the days following Connie’s birthday), my friends joined us for celebrations at a Hawaiian bar, an Irish pub, and Hard Rock Café, and then the entire city came out to celebrate my birthday the day before with carnivals, fireworks, dances, parades, and more. Okay, it was actually San Isidro, the city’s patron saint, that they were celebrating, but it was nicely timed.

Gran Vía, packed with people all celebrating my birthday, of course!

On my actual birthday, Connie and I caught a morning flight to Palma de Mallorca, on the island of Mallorca, off the eastern coast of Spain. Our hostel was about a block from the beach, and we had a private room with a balcony overlooking the ocean. We arrived and had a conversation with a nice guy from Missouri who had spent the past few months traveling Europe. I then found Cherry Coke, which isn’t regularly sold in Spain, in a nearby store, an excellent birthday present. We spent the day walking along the beach, stopping in shops along the way. We splurged on lunch (and by “splurged,” I mean we opted for something more than McDonalds or 40-cent baguettes), and then lay on the beach, where I fell asleep listening to beach music.

Beautiful Mallorca.

We sat on the beach watching the sunset and then had dinner at a slightly rundown kebab place, which wasn’t great but was still fun. We then returned to our hostel, where we sat on the balcony sipping sangría out of 3-foot straws and listening to beach music, and then we ended the night with ice cream from McDonalds. So, basically? Amaaazing birthday.

Sunset.

The next day, we rented bikes and rode along the beach, escaping the hordes of German tourists by exploring some areas farther from our hostel in the resort part of town, and enjoying the beauty of Mallorca. We spent more time relaxing (and sleeping) on the beach, and watched the sunset again.

Rocky area we biked to.

Our last day in Mallorca, we took a bus into town, where I unfortunately discovered that my camera’s memory card was missing. Taking photos is one of my favorite parts of traveling, but I still enjoyed wandering around the city (which felt a lot more Spanish than the resort area we were staying in, where far more German and English is spoken than Spanish). We returned to the area of our hostel, sat on the beach for a bit, and then flew back to Madrid.

Plaza Mayor in Palma de Mallorca, from Connie’s photos (so sad I didn’t have my own).

Mallorca was definitely more of a relaxed vacation than a sight-seeing trip, as most of my other travels were, and I had a fantastic time. Being in landlocked Madrid made me love the ocean even more than I did before, and Mallorca is beautiful. It’s going to be a hard birthday to beat.

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In case you weren’t aware, I’m back in California, where I’ve been for four weeks now. As much as I adored Spain, I’m not missing it yet because I’m still excited to be back, and I’m just elated to have had the amazing experience I had.

Watching Spain win the World Cup was absolutely incredible. I’ve never been so passionate about a sporting event and team in my life, and I had some really fun experiences watching the games while I was still in Spain and then back in the U.S. I even got to celebrate the championship with real Spaniards in a bar in Vegas! I’m so proud to have called Spain my home for almost a year.

My last day in Spain, I hand-wrote a farewell entry that got lost amid my (still not unpacked) suitcases, but hopefully I’ll post that eventually. For now, I’d like to continue writing about my trips.

In early May, to celebrate my friend Connie’s birthday, we took a trip to the north of Spain to see Santander in Cantabria and Bilbao and San Sebastián in País Vasco (Basque Country). Our flight was delayed by a day thanks to the Icelandic volcanic ash, but we were able to rearrange our schedule, and the next morning we flew out to Santander, which, unfortunately, was cold, rainy, and windy, but we still enjoyed exploring the beach city (and attempting to not get blown into the ocean). As it was Sunday, and most small towns in Europe shut down on Sundays, there wasn’t a lot to see in town, but we saw an old cathedral, walked along the beach, checked out a European Union Day that was going on, and took a funicular to catch a great view of the city and the ocean.

View of Santander after taking the Funicular.

We next took a bus to Bilbao, a city I’ve wanted to visit since I saw it on a map of Spain in 8th grade and giggled about the similarity of the name to Bilbo Baggins. Eight years later, I was still giggling about it. After settling in at our hotel, we took the metro (one of the nicest, cleanest metros I’ve seen, second to Madrid’s, of course!) to the Museo Guggenheim. Oh my gosh, stunning. It’s similar to the Disney Concert Hall in L.A. (both are designed by Frank Gehry), but it also has beautiful green hills and a river behind it, and the light was hitting it perfectly when we were there at sundown. We saw the lobby but didn’t pay to go into the museum since it was closing in less than an hour, but we stayed in the area for a long time, taking pictures, listening to live jazz music, eating dinner at a kebab place across the street, and watching the sunset. I’m not big on architecture, but I fell in love with the Guggenheim. Back at the hostel, I had a nice phone conversation with family back home, chatted with the Dutch guy working at the hostel for a while, and worked on that 50-page paper before heading to bed.

The Guggenheim.

We spent the next day in Bilbao exploring the rest of the city, like the cute main area filled with shops and restaurants. Then we took a bus to our next destination, San Sebastián, another beach city along the northern coast. It’s a small town, but we walked along the ocean and saw the cathedral and shopping area. We had a nice, private hostel room, which was lovely until a drunk Spaniard wouldn’t stop pounding on our door late at night wanting to make friends. Annoying, but funny.

Bilbao.

San Sebastián.

Our last day of the trip, we saw a bit more of San Sebastián and checked out a few pintxo bars, where the bars are covered in small dishes you can choose from and eat tapas-style. We had some delicious pintxos (best tortilla española I’ve ever had, and that’s my favorite food!) and talked to a few people, making it a great way to end our northern Spain trip.

Pintxos!

Fortunately, our flight home wasn’t delayed, so we took a bus back to Santander (the countryside in Basque Country and Cantabria is beautiful and green!) and a flight back to Madrid. I loved getting to explore Spain by visiting its various regions, and I had an awesome time on our trip to Cantabria and País Vasco.

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