The Other Side of Study Abroad

Lily Sheridan, a student from Manhasset, NY, was dancing to “Like I Do” by Brooks, David Guetta, and Martin Garrix when she was pick-pocketed on Friday Sept. 13 at Opium Barcelona, a club in Barcelona, Spain. Lily went to grab her phone from her cross-body bag when the song ended, but it was not there. She immediately used Find My Iphone to try to locate her phone, but the location had been turned off. Tears started to fill Lily’s eyes as her friend Nell tried to comfort her. It took Lily over two weeks to get a new replacement phone.

“Having my phone stolen ruined my night and has made me paranoid now every time I go out,” Sheridan said. “It made me lose a lot of trust in people who live in Spain. It is really discouraging to have something like that happen so early into your study abroad experience.”

Lily is one of 335,000 students from the United States who study abroad for credit each year, according to NAFSA, the Association of International Educators. The instagram version of their experience involves popping champagne bottles on the Amalfi coast in Italy, toasting with a beer mug at Oktoberfest in Munich, and eating a charcuterie board under the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Three photos courtesy of Lily's Instagram. The pickpocketing did not make the feed.

But what doesn’t make it to the brag networks are the horror stories like Lily’s pick-pocketing, the bed bugs from an Airbnb, or missed flights.

Studying abroad for a semester has become more popular over the past few decades. Almost 55 percent of students who studied abroad during the 2016-2017 academic year traveled to Europe, according to NAFSA. Of this population, 40 percent study in just five countries: the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, and Germany, according to NAFSA. In the 2015-2016 academic year, nearly 30,000 U.S. students studied abroad in Spain for academic credit, according to USA Study Abroad, a subsection of the U.S. Department of State’s website. This number has increased each year since 2013.

Living in the Midst of Riots

Isabelle Clark, a student from Madison, New Jersey, studying in Barcelona, Spain, envisioned her semester to be filled with picnics at the top of Bunker Hill, nights out at Opium, and Sundays spent walking around La Boqueria market. Instead, she found herself living in the midst of riots for Catalan independence. Clark, along with Morgan Tolan, a student from Pelum, New York, are living in an apartment building near La Parque de la Ciutadella for the semester. Protests in Barcelona turned violent on Monday Oct. 14 after the jail sentence of twelve Catalan politicians came out for organizing a referendum on independence that was considered illegal.

Clark and Tolan vividly remember the first day of the protests because they were out to dinner celebrating Tolan’s 21st birthday with other students studying abroad in Barcelona. The two women were approaching Placa de Catalunya when they saw the streets packed with people of all ages, chanting and wrapped in the Catalonian flag. They abruptly walked the other direction, Clark said.

“We were just walking to have a nice, fun dinner to celebrate Morgan’s birthday,” Clark said. “The last thing we expected was to see that. It was very startling.”

A demonstration occurred right across the street from the building Clark and Tolan are living in on Wednesday Oct. 16. The protests have taken place throughout the entire city, Clark said. To her knowledge, they are usually planned. Insitu, the study abroad program Clark and Tolan are enrolled in, will email them if they are aware of a planned riot. Additionally, the two are required to fill out a form when they leave Barcelona for the weekend so Insitu knows where their students are at all times.

“While I haven’t have been in a situation where there is a threat of violence right in front of me, the presence of huge groups, police officers, and rioters is very intimidating and uneasy to an American student,” Clark said. “It’s pretty scary, especially while I’m still getting used to living in Barcelona and finding my way around it.”

Protests in Barcelona Streets.

Photo courtesy of Isabelle Clark.

Clark and Tolan, who attend a Catalan University, University of Pompeu Fabra, with locals, said violence around campus isn’t the only problem. The two women have faced social pressures such as joining a demonstration, Clark said. 

“One day the students at our school had a sleepover and boarded up the walls of our school so that no one was able to get inside and classes had to be canceled for the day,” Tolan said. “Every student and teacher at our school is very passionate about this, it’s quite intimidating.”

Leaving a Weekend Getaway with Bed Bugs

Eric Gonzalez, studying in Madrid, Spain, has a different horror story that didn’t make social media.

Gonzalez got bed bugs from an Airbnb he stayed at in Valencia, Spain the weekend of Sept. 6. Gonzalez said him and his four apartment mates were unaware that the Airbnb they were staying in was a healer’s massage parlor going into the weekend. The five men’s only impression of the Airbnb was that paying $100 total for three nights was really cheap, Gonzalez said. The five men said they were looking forward to doing a bike tour of the Valencia, going to the aquarium, and exploring the city’s nightlife.

Gonzalez noticed the bites because they were itchy after he and his friends had stayed in the one bedroom for three nights.

“I felt a ton of little white bumps on my stomach when I was getting into the cab to go to the airport on Sunday,” Gonzalez said. “When we got back to Madrid, my four roommates and I had to strip down on the porch, bag all our clothes from the weekend, and take really hot showers.”

Gonzalez, fourth to the left, and his four roommates in Valencia. Little did they know how their weekend would end.

Photo courtesy of Eric Gonzalez

The five students received $30 back from the company. They said the owner did not care that they got bed bugs, but was only concerned with the bad review they wrote. 

“It made me very hesitant to use Airbnb in the future,” Gonzalez said. “Now I check every single bed when I travel because it ruined my entire weekend in Valencia.”

Missed Flight to London Caused Weekend to Start in Tears

Like Gonzalez, Nicole Murillo is also studying abroad in Madrid, Spain for the semester and has a story that didn’t quite make the instagram.

Murillo, who is from Weston, Connecticut, missed her flight to London on Oct. 11.

Murillo was traveling to London for her friend’s 21st birthday celebration when her weekend turned into a nightmare. Murillo left her apartment at 6:20 in the morning and took the metro to Terminal 4 of the Madrid Barajas Airport. Her flight’s boarding time was 8:20. Murillo said she got to the airport, looked at the board, saw Iberia Airlines Madrid to Gatwick Airport, checked the gate number and headed that direction. On her way to the gate, Murillo showed a crew member her ticket to confirm she was going to the correct gate. She sat at the gate until it was time to board the plane.

“When I got in line to board and showed them my mobile ticket, I was told I was at the wrong gate,” Murillo said. “My heart dropped. Madrid to Gatwick, same airline, slightly different flight numbers. What are the chances.”

Murillo sprinted to the correct gate, but she was too late. The door had closed.

“I spent three hours in the airport trying to get on another flight that day, but they told me with the same airline it would be insanely expensive,” Murillo said. “Now I triple check the gate to make sure it never happens again while I’m traveling around Europe.”

Photo of Murillo left, in London. This photo made the social networks, yet the airport experience did not.

Photo courtesy of Nicole Murillo.

Murillo said that was one of the saddest few hours of her life.

“I lost hundreds of dollars and my dignity,” Murillo said.