"Well, what else can go wrong," I asked myself as I stood in the baggage claim area of the Alicante, Spain airport. It was 10:00 p.m. I had arrived 30 hours later than planned, the airline had lost my luggage and I had nowhere to go because I didn't know who my host family was or even where they lived.
You're probably wondering who I am, so I suppose I should tell you a little bit about myself. Me llamo Benjamin Petell. Soy estudiante de periodismo y comunicación de masa en la Universidad del Estado de Arizona. By the way, if you don't know Spanish, like I didn't only two weeks ago, I'll translate for you. My name is Benjamin Petell. I'm a journalism and mass communication student at Arizona State University.
I knew that going to Spain to learn Spanish was something that I wanted to do when I began studying at ASU. After completing most of my university general studies requirements, I decided that the spring semester of my sophomore year was the best time for my adventure abroad. So here I am, taking 16 credit hours consisting entirely of Spanish courses at the Universidad de Alicante in Alicante, Spain. It sounds really simple, right? Well, not exactly.
My travelling woes began when my flight arrived late in Philadelphia because of bad weather. As a result, I missed my connecting flight from Philadelphia to Madrid and had to find a seat on a later flight. I knew it didn't look good when the ticket agent frowned and shook her head as she checked the available flights.
As I stood at the ticket counter, the agent seemed to type an entire term paper before I was rebooked for another flight. I was informed that the next flight to Madrid didn't leave for another 24 hours.
"Okay, let's do that," I replied since it looked like that was all I could do.
"Oh, that flight is completely full," the airline employee said with a smile. Ultimately, I was rebooked on a flight from Philadelphia to Munich leaving the next day and I spent the night at a hotel close by.
The next day, when the time came for my plane to depart, it was snowing in Philadelphia and the plane had to be de-iced. My flight arrived late in Munich because of the delay, but I was able to catch my connecting flight from Munich to Madrid. As luck would have it, it was also snowing in Munich and I once again had to go through the process of waiting to be de-iced, getting de-iced and then waiting to take off.
As you may expect, I wasn't as lucky in Madrid as I had been in Munich. I missed my connecting flight from Madrid to Alicante because of the weather delay in Munich and was rebooked once again on a flight a few hours later. When I finally landed in Alicante, I went directly to baggage claim and waited for my luggage, which never circled the conveyer belt. I later found out it was still in Munich. It was now a day later than had been planned and I didn't know where to go from the airport. I had also missed the gathering the day earlier in Alicante where I was supposed to meet my host family.
With only a backpack, I called my program coordinator to get the address of my host family. Seeing that I was a tourist, the taxi driver took me on a scenic ride through the city. When I finally arrived at 11:00 p.m., my host family welcomed me with smiles. I tried to tell my host family of my journey, but I had a difficult time communicating. My host mother, Maite, only speaks Spanish and my host brother and sister know just a little. (You'll learn more about my host family as the semester goes on.) As you can imagine, I was very happy to take a warm shower and go to bed.
As mentioned earlier, I'm studying at a university in Alicante, Spain for the duration of the spring semester. Alicante is coastal city on the Mediterranean Sea, south of Barcelona and the university is very similar in size to ASU. I'm still learning about the university and Alicante as a whole. At first, I was a little overwhelmed by all of the Spanish being spoken. I've been in Spain for about two weeks now and I've found that I'm learning the language very quickly. Throughout this semester, I'll be writing this column for ASU's Web Devil. So keep checking back for stories of my adventures, or should I say misadventures, in Spain.
Benjamin Petell is a travel columnist for the Web Devil. Reach him at benjamin.petell@asu.edu.
