Besalu, Vic, and Navarra

I have now taken two mandatory field trips with my program. The first one was during orientation week, to Besalu and Vic, two very small towns near Barcelona. The second was was to Basque country, to Navarra. This was a three day trip during study week, and we stayed in Pamplona. We got to see lots of other towns, though, like Olite and Estella. So you're probably thinking, "I've never heard of most of these places." That's okay, neither had anybody else.

The Orientation trip, to be honest, was probably a bad idea in theory. We had to wake up at six in the morning on a Saturday. It was our first week here. Most of my dorm-mates were either still drunk or hungover. And it was around forty degrees with freezing rain the whole time. Not a good start to a field trip that involves 500 students.

Despite all this, I still had some fun. Lunch was good! But I particularly enjoyed one story about the town that I find very interesting. A long, long time ago, I don't remember when, the town was split into two sides. There was literally a line through the city on the stone pavement. Each side had its own "police force." So, if a person from side A sneaked over to side B, stole somebody's purse, or whatever, and then quickly ran back to side A, neither side could do anything about it. I just thought that was amusing.

The Study Week trip to Navarra also had its interesting points. I enjoyed seeing the old castles, which had amazing views. We got to see the Camino de Santiago, and where Hemingway stayed while he was in Pamplona. We also got to meet a retired bull-fighter, and he gave us a demonstration of how to lead the bull around. (No bulls were harmed during the demonstration. Actually, no bulls were even involved during the demonstration.) I also really enjoyed the snow. Yep, snow. They took us to the coldest part of Spain.

I did not, however, enjoy the schedule they gave us. It was very packed, with very little free time. It left us so exhausted by dinner that we barely had any energy left to go out, especially knowing that we were getting up at 7:30am the next day. And it gave us 40 minutes for lunch. Now, this might not seem like something to complain about. But have you ever tried having lunch in SPAIN in 40 minutes. You could maybe do it at a McDonald's. Maybe. But really, this is literally IMPOSSIBLE. It is just not done. My group wound up speeding things along by getting our courses and dessert served at the same time. We ran out of there back to the bus, leaving money on the table without even getting the check. (Don't worry; we knew how much it cost). Another group of people didn't even go into a restaurant. They wound up buying loaves of bread and cheese from a market and eating them on the bus. One pair of students was not so lucky. They got left. In a little town. In the middle of nowhere. Really IES?

At any rate, I am extremely glad to be back in Barcelona. I have really enjoyed most of my travels so far, but IES just wears me out when the trip is mandatory. I did take one other field trip with IES, but this one was voluntary, and it was probably the best weekend I have had so far during my semester abroad. Moral of the story: mandatory field trips with 500 students are a bad idea. Period. :-)