And Then There Were 70-Something People Minus One

I have now been in Spain for roughly five months, Barcelona for four, and up to this point no one has permanently left or been sent home. But tomorrow this will change.

A girl in my program is being sent home, and initially we didn't know what happened to her. It started circulating that she was leaving and we all assumed she got caught smoking pot or something (especially since I read the EAP rulebook to see what she could have done to be asked to leave).

The other night she came and hung out with us and told us why she's leaving. There was a "Welcome The New Abroad Students" party at a club on the beach last week and she decided to go with some of our friends. She ended up getting really drunk and splitting off from the group. She left the "Dance Floor" area and headed to the "VIP Seating" area to meet some new people. She met a group of French boys who were all ganging up on this one guy, calling him gay. She started taunting him as well and asking him things like "What, you don't like girls?"

He took her hand and started to lead her toward what she thought was the dance floor. He was pretty cute, so she was fine with dancing with him. He ended up pulling her into the bathroom and raping her - during which she lost her coat check card that she was keeping in her tights.

He left, and the club closed and she had no way of getting her coat back. She went back to the French boys and asked them if they knew where their friend was, since she thought he might have her coat check card. It turns out that they had just been talking to him because they were all French, but they weren't actually friends. Luckily, the French boys were willing to help her out and got her coat back for her. Since she didn't have money for a cab, they offered to let her come stay at their hostel for the night. Which she did.

Three days later, after having multiple threesomes with the French boys (turns out they are brothers who had immigrated to the United States and went to Cornell), she decided to go home.

All the things that had happened over the last few days caught up with her and she was extremely depressed. She ended up taking 33 Valium (since 33 is her favorite number) and chasing them with half a bottle of gin. She passed out for two days and then fell out of her bed, waking herself up.

She went downstairs and talked to her roommates for a little while, and messaged one of her friends. A couple of her friends came over and one took her to the hospital where she drank two liters of Charcoal (the blood stabilizer for when things like this happen) and then was checked into the psyche ward for two days.

They let her go, but our program director decided it would be best if she went home. So, she called her dad who wired her $2000 to buy a plane ticket, found a ticket for $1000 and went on a shopping spree (where she bought a D&G jacket, a Tous bag, a couple piercings, etc.). Later that night she called her dad and asked him for more money and went on another shopping spree the following day.

She's been with us since Cádiz, so it's really strange to be losing her, but it's probably best she goes home at this point.