The ~Eventful~ Trip to Lisbon

So the trip was organised through a student association at my uni. They basically “help” integrate international students - I say “help” because they do nothing and my god, they had so much drama the whole trip. Anyways, getting to the airport was a journey. We got there four hours early, which was super unnecessary. At the airport, they kept trying to micromanage us (they did this the entire trip). They just made us wait for people who were late and made the whole group late. 

During our four hours at the airport, we found out we were staying at a hostel, not a hotel - I feel like the writing was on the walls when they said we had to bring a towel or rent one at the "hotel". After getting off the plane, we struggled to get an Uber which we eventually got and went to the hostel. At first, we weren’t thrilled about the situation (at one point in the trip, we discovered that the girls were the only ones without a shower in their room, and we felt robbed) but decided to eat before making any wild decisions (us being hungry was a significant theme throughout the trip because we needed to be babysat ofc).

 We went out drinking. A friend of a friend told us about this super cheap bar with 1€ shots. So naturally, we went there every night. The rest of the first night was a bit of a blur. We went to a rooftop bar, segregated from most of the association people (another major theme - we found out later that they liked us. Which was awkward because we just complained about how disorganised and miserable they seemed).

The next day we did some sightseeing, I got slides, and we were supposed to have a surprise activity. I think the surprise was there was no activity. That evening, we went out for dinner, went back to bar hopping and eventually went to a club. It took us a whole hour to get in because the security kept trying to charge us 250€ each (for the Canadians, almost 375 CAD) - we think it was because we were a large group at first, and he was trying to sell bottle service but, he was so rude. But we were talking to the student association president (who got into the club before us) outside, and we heard him say to a group of three, 10€ for the girl and 20€ for you boys. We looked at each other and when up to him, and he just let us in. The club was super fun, and the association people were dancing with us, which was nice. 

The next day this girl, A and I went on a boat tour with the student association people. At some point during the trip, we discovered our flight got cancelled. They managed to get us different flights one group would leave the hostel at 4:30 am and the other group (which I was in) at 9:30. This will be important later. It was fun we stole some blankets from the boat. This dumb French girl and L, another french girl, thought they were free, so they returned to the boat to get L a blanket. They were somehow shocked when one of the employees took the blanket back. We hid them for a reason had they been free, I would have just walked off the boat with mine. 

After, we went to all-you-can-eat sushi with two guys from the student association (at this point, we just started to make our own plans because there was too much “French management” - which is the inability to make a rational decision without overcomplicating it). When everyone started drinking, I returned to the hostel cause my voice was dead. I went to bed around 1 am. At around 2, L, with her dumbass friend, came into the room banging and crashing. Unlike everyone else, they had not packed their shit before catching a 6 am flight. I was rightfully pissed and asked them to turn the light off, and one of them said, you have an eye cover. I was sitting on my bed thinking, that wasn't the point we share this room with other people. You can't come in here banging and crashing and get surprised when people are pissed off. At some point, L went out of the room without her key. I went to the bathroom with my key and shut the door when I returned before L. Her friend said, oh she left it open because she doesn’t have a key. I just looked at her and said, Okay, then open the door when she's back. L was NOT happy about that. She slammed the door and started cussing me out in French. All I can say is she deserved it.

While this was happening, I was texting it to E, who showed everyone, including the president of the student association, who was on my side. L fucked around, and she found out. They eventually left, and I waited for E to hear what happened at the club. After E came back, so did the French girls, who immediately turn on the fucking lights AGAIN. E told them to turn it off, and L’s dumbass friend said, oh, I thought Megan was coming to the airport with us, and I said to E, right, cause they defs didn't tell us who was going to the airport and when then thank the lord they went to the airport. Nothing really happened of note the rest of the way home.

Notable Drama

- E v. A:  A and I got to know E more. E and I got close and had a lot of fun together. But A basically started copying EVERYTHING E said, and it was giving major pick-me vibes. E started getting annoyed with A because E does whatever she wants, and A is a follower. When they were on the plane going home, E got Ed (one of our friends) to sit in-between them. During the trip home, E pretended to sleep and woke up to A giving her the death stair. E and I also talked after the trip, and we think A might have been a little jealous because E and I were sharing (food, clothes, etc.) on the trip. 

- Everyone v. M and L (different L): at first student association kinda dumped M and L on us. Then Ed said that if we keep babysitting them we aren't going to have fun. They would get really drunk and run off or get into trouble, but it became less and less our problem and more the student association's problem. The first night L smashed a window and cut his hand. M almost got mugged. The second night we lost them at some point and M missed the boat tour. The last night, they did a bar crawl, L was apparently in the ocean at some point (can confirm he was not). M woke up drunk and somehow was sober enough to fly

- The student association v. The international students: We got really annoyed with the student association people really fast. They basically babysat us most of the time while also ignoring us. I don’t know why but they were very rude to us. There were a few of the people from the association who actually wanted to hang with us and we did make an effort to hang with them but it was still a little awkward

- The student association v. Themselves: I’m pretty sure they were fighting the whole trip which was why the vibe was off. Nobody was getting along nor were they making decisions that made any sense. I think when we were at the club and drinking they seemed to loosen up but it was too inefficient and French, so we started doing our own thing and telling them what we were doing.