Life continues as normal, but not without taking a fat sleep Monday. I come home from Rome, go to class, and after eating something, I got to bed at 7:00 and don’t wake up until 10:00 the next morning. Which is normal cause of how damn tiring these trips are. But lets go into this week!

Also this week, I started my Instagram Takeovers for the VCU Make It Real account and the VCU Abroad Account! I feel like I could have done better, but oh well…

School

Its life as normal. As the impending doom of my round 2 tests inches ever so closer, I begin studying. But not a lot. Maybe I look over notes during some free time, but a lot of my time is spent recovering and preparing for the next weekend’s trip, which for this week, is Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. I go to class, take notes, go home, and relax. Nothing super special about this week. We didn’t have Biomechanics at all this week (except for our 7pm lab on Tursday, which is dumb, but whatever). So on Tuesday, I had even more time to waste since we only had Bioinstrumentation in the morning and nothing else. Amazing.

This Thursday was killer though. We had our presentation for Biotransport, which I was stressed about since we hadn’t practiced it once. Should we have, oh yea, cause when it got to my part, I only had 15 minutes to describe a complex physics concept and go through our problem. I was speaking at light speed in order to get through it all, and I can only imagine how the locals felt. I think I went too in depth and didn’t need to go that far, but it was also the other members taking too much time. It wasn’t their fault since we had no idea, but it was just stressful. I don’t know what kind of grade we got since we went 2 minutes over our time and I’m not sure how interesting our presentation was, but hopefully it won’t be that bad. By the end of the class, leaving to go to our next one, I was out of breath from talking too fast and judging on what I should gloss over and what I should spend the most time on.

The next class was Bioinstrumentation. Right now, this is my favorite class because of what we are going through. Our topic right now is digital electronics, and we are learning about how analog signals get turned into digital ones, as well as computer architecture and how digital electronics work. I love this type of stuff, and right now its the only class I’m not stressing over and am genuinely interested in. I can’t wait to continue my Electrical Engineering minor when I get back to VCU and learn more about this awesome world.

Signals was boring as usual, but we did not have Biomechanics that week! So instead of a two hour class, I leave signals early and make my way to Sol to help the ISA people with hosting some Study Abroad Officials visiting Madrid for the week. They were meeting ISA to possibly become affiliates of ISA, and to help them get a better perspective, ISA asked some students to come in and talk to them for a little bit, just them and the students. Normally I have Biomechanics, but since I didn’t, I decided to go. Big mistake, cause I knew I would be late coming back for my Biomechanics lab at 7, but I’m dumb and went anyway. In the end, I was only 5 minutes late, which was alright, but I burst into the classroom out of breath from running from the train station to the classroom. But the lab was boring as usual. So now I have to write a really elaborate lab report for Biomechanics due the first week of December. However, apparently for grading, its a place system, so the best paper gets a 10, second place gets a 9, third place gets an 8, and so on, which is incredibly stupid I hate it. Cause if two papers are super good, one has to get a 10 and the other a 9, and is totally based on the opinion of the professor. My grade is already poop in that class, and I just really hate that this is a thing. So yea, not stressful at all.

After that, I go home, pack everything, prepare food, and get ready for another early morning.

Lanzarote – Day 1

I get to the airport, get my habitual breakfast of a coffee, orange juice, and croissant, and begin the flight. I really have to get better about the coffee, cause I always have to pee and its only a 2 hour flight. But its coffee, I always have to pee an hour after I have coffee. So I try to limit how much water I drink, but it almost never works.

So anyway, I land in Lanzarote, and its amazing!! The airport is literally right on the water, and it just feels beachy the moment I get of the plane. I walk into the airport, get on the WiFi, and immediately open Maps to make sure I have the island map download as to not repeat a Rome incident. I do have data here, but just to be sure. The bus system was super confusing cause apparently you buy the ticket when you get on the bus. But no one told me that until I was at the bus station. But I was introduced by this view at the bus stop.

Yet another rainbow, like my first day in Rome eating dinner in my room, overlooking the adjacent square. The bus ride was cheap, and I went to Puerto del Carmen, which was like a 20 minute bus ride away. I was able to check in early to the AirBnB, so right when I got to Lanzarote, I could go to my room, which was super nice. However, on the bus ride, I get a text from the diving company I was going out with tomorrow, asking if I could do today instead. Thankfully I was already in Lanzarote, cause I don’t know what would happen if I couldn’t have done today. I found the AirBnB, then went to a cafe for some food, and then answered the text saying that I could. I check-in to the room, take a short nap, and then get back up to go to the diving place (which was right around the corner from the house. I walked by it like at least 6 times during my stay there).

Manta Diving Lanzarote. Super awesome place with super awesome people. I walk in and they are already ready for me. They give me a short quiz to be sure that I’m not an idiot (surprisingly, I am not), a short medical questionnaire, and they bring me back to put on my wet suit, give me my equipment, and give me the more in depth safety talk. If you did not know, this is my first time ever scuba diving, so I was kind of nervous, but mostly excited. Nothing was too complicated, so within 30 minutes of the safety talk, we were getting on our equipment and getting into the water.

I was the only one doing the Discovery Dive that day, so it was just me and the instructor James. James is from Wales (I’m 95% sure), and has lived in Lanzarote for the past 2 years teaching people how to scuba dive. He is the same age as me, so it was very easy to talk to him and relate to him.

The first time in the water, we went over the safety points again, such as what to do if you lose your regulator in the water, how to clear the regulator of water, all the important stuff. After that, we had 2 dives of about 45 minutes, but it was so cool!! We saw flounders, cuttlefish, sea urchins, and a bunch of other underwater wildlife. When we swam through groups of fish, they let us swim right through them as if we weren’t there. It was super cool!!

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After all the excitement, I needed some food and a nap. So I got dinner, went to the supermarket to get some breakfast foods, and went back home to sleep.

When I woke up, I just wasn’t feeling going out. I planned what I would do the next day, but I wasn’t feeling going out that night. So I got some extra sleep to prepare myself to go out tomorrow.

Lanzarote – Day 2

I wake up early cause today, I want to go to Timanfaya, a national park that is also geological hotspot with a couple dormant volcanic craters. I wanted to hike around and get a couple of good pictures, however there was no bus transportation there and a taxi would cost 40 Euros one way, so I thought I would rent a bike for a day and go there that way. However, the park was 21 km away from the town I was staying in, and most of it was uphill. I grossly overestimated my abilities. After breakfast and renting the bike, I started my ride, and not 2 km away from the town, I was on my way back to the apartment. When I say it was all uphill, I mean steep uphill. And I am in the worst shape of my life rn, so that was not happening in the slightest. So I wasted 12 Euros to rent a bike. Poop.

So I went back to the room, and decided to go to the beach, since the sun was still up and it was warm. So I packed my backpack, changed to my bathing suit, and went to the beach. I noticed today, more than yesterday, that there are not that many young people in this town and the bars are really not that poppin. Everyone I walked by was an old British couple holding hands, and where there is nothing wrong with that, but that was EVERYONE. So I just didn’t feel 100% apart of the culture of the town like I did in Barcelona or Rome. However, I still had my surfing lesson tomorrow, so I wasn’t going to let the population get me down. I enjoyed a couple hours on the beach, got an awesome dinner, and went back home to rest up for the next day at Famara.

Lanzarote – Day 3

SURFING DAY!!! The second activity of this trip, and I was ready to feel the burn. The school had organized a pickup for me, so I got the the surf school at 10:00 am, and everyone else was already there. I was doing a 1-day class, but others were there doing 3-, 5-, or even 10- day classes, so I felt really out of place being the only 1-day person. Also, Everyone else was living in Famara, the surf town itself, but that’s for later.

Of course I didn’t know anyone, so I went into maximum social mode and asked people their names and introduced myself. There were people from Germany and Switzerland, and I was the only American there. It was weird being in a place where being an American was rare, but it was kind of cool too. Like there are a lot of Americans in Madrid and Spain, but American in the Canary Islands? Apparently weird. But we went to the beach, and our instructor started the lesson.

He split it up into three parts. Finding our place on the board and catching a wave, paddling to catch a wave, and then learning how to stand up. We went through all those parts, took a break, and then had some extra time practice what we had learned on our own. The first two steps were easy, as you would expect, and the third step was really hard, but not for the reason you would expect. I was able to find my place on the board, I was able to catch the wave and paddle to catch the wave, but I just simply could not get up. It was a three step system: get on all fours, move your back foot to the middle of the board, and follow-through with your front foot. However, after paddling to catch the wave, my arms did not allow me to get up on all fours to move. I hate not having access to a gym cause I knew exactly what I needed to do, and I had the balance on the board to do it, I just could not get my arms to push my torso off the board, and it was super frustrating. Eventually, after the break and still having problems with my arm strength, I decided to push off with my feet to catch the wave instead of paddling to just practice standing up, since that was my only goal for the day. With that, I had enough arm strength to stand up, and after some extra help from the instructor and nailing down the sequence for standing up, I FINALLY CAUGHT A WAVE AND STOOD UP ALL THE WAY TO THE SHORE!!! It was so much fun, and I want to try again once I’ve done some gym time and gotten some strength back. Cause with strength will come endurance as well as better balance. So I am really ready for that. I am sad at how short the session was, but I was happy I had the chance to go surfing (also a first) and to STAND UP SUCCESSFULLY!!!

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After the lesson and going through the videos for technique adjustment, I went back to Puerto del Carmen. I did a lot of shopping and got some dinner, but that night was pretty uneventful. I never ended up going to a bar cause I just wasn’t feeling it. My social meter was on zero, and I just wasn’t feeling the mood to go drinking. So I watched some TV, enjoyed some great tasting wine, and went to bed.

All in all…

Super fun trip filled with unforgettable experiences, but not my favorite trip. That is still Rome (or until I go skiing lol). It was a very beautiful volcanic island with black sand beaches, an intense sun, and super nice people. The food was ok, shopping was limited since it was a resort town, and transportation was really bad. I regret not scheduling an excursion to Timanfaya, but I can’t do everything in a weekend. To those who want to go to the Canary Islands, I would suggest doing some research into the towns. Puerto del Carmen was a vacation town for rich old people. So not many young people to interact with. Famara, where I went surfing, was full of people who were there for surfing, so you athletic people who liked to have fun. As a person who feeds of the energy of the room, I feel like I woul have enjoyed my visit way more if I stayed in Famara. However, hindsight is 20/20. I still really enjoyed my visit and was able to go scuba diving and surfing for the first time!

The next week I will be going to Granada, which is also an ISA excursion. I got really sad when I noticed that this was my last time using Ryanair. Only two more excursions left, which meant my time in Spain is coming to an end, and that gives me mixed feelings. I am happy to go home and see my family and friends, but I am not done with Spain. I want to be here more, I want to experience more of the culture and, above all, learn more Spanish. But that is still over a month away, so I am not going to stress about that now. Until next week!!

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