Our Journey

Hello and welcome to the Spanish Foodie and Culture Program Blog! 

Throughout the blog, you will get a glimpse into the experiences of our nine participants.

Our journey began on June 8th. For some, the traveling began as early as 5:40 AM, a minimum of two airport transfers, and multiple TSA checks. We experienced layovers ranging from two to seven hours at our gateway airport. All was going pretty smoothly until it was time to fly out of Madrid to go to our final destination: Alicante.

Throughout the journey and even with some last minute changes, the participants have remained in high spirits or as high-spirited as they can be given their lack of sleep. We spent our time at the airport bonding with one another. Of course, there is no better way to start a friendship than a journey that starts with a setback. No, our bags were not lost and our flight was not delayed. If you guessed that our flight was canceled, you are correct! What was meant to be an hour long flight became a six-hour bus ride.

Upon our arrival in Alicante, via bus, we met our program coordinator: Manuel. From the bus station, we rode a smaller bus to the hotel, our home for the next three weeks. We each had a late dinner - is it still dinner at 12:30 AM? The meal consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich, a banana, yogurt, and bottled water.

After multiple hours of traveling and spending time together, we will have fond memories of "wave checks", discussing our kicks (shoes), extracurricular activities we participate in back home, and last but not least “forgetting” the program leader's name. No, it is not Cristina, Carmen or Chloe. Although my name, Yesenia, is a bit complicated, all hope is not lost; we have three weeks to learn each other’s names, explore Alicante, and grow our bond. At the end of the day, we were all excited that we made it to Alicante and were anxiously awaiting our orientation the next day.