My story with jet lag when studying abroad in Barcelona!
Hello everyone, my name is Rachel Rybicki and I am studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain this summer! I will be in Barcelona studying for a month. The first week I was out of my comfort zone, but I am now settling in and loving it here in Barcelona!
I want to share my experience with jet lag. I left Atlanta around 7pm and I landed in Barcelona around 9am the next morning. On the plane I was able to sleep a little bit, but only about 4 hours. So I had to spend my first day in Barcelona running on 4 hours of sleep. I really wanted to take a nap, but I had heard from many different people to try and stay awake the first day and make it to 9:00pm before going to sleep. I completely agree with this plan! I was able to stay up, but the day felt very long. Making it to late evening before falling asleep helped me get used to the Spain schedule. Had I gone to sleep early, I would have woken up at 3am and been very disoriented. My advice to anyone studying abroad is to push through the first day to try and beat jet lag and get on their time schedule!
I also want to share some tips and tricks that helped me stay awake through the first day. First, don’t lay down! It can seem very nice to take a little break and lay down in your bed. Next thing you know you’ve slept for 5 hours and may have a hard time falling asleep that night! Staying active and out of you living arrangement can really help with this. Go outside and get some fresh air, it can help a lot! Explore your new city or go do some sightseeing. Drinking a lot of water can help too, staying hydrated after traveling is very important!
This is a picture from my first day when I was walking around and exploring!