Gina Muller, Spanish teacher, taught English at a Madrid language academy and taught Spanish at a London international school. After completing her undergraduate studies, Muller spontaneously traveled to Spain.

“I was 22 years old, and I figured I’d majored in Spanish and still felt like I couldn’t speak it,” she said, “so I needed to go the country. In those days, you could buy tickets that were open-ended. It was a round trip ticket, but I could come back whenever I wanted, so I went to Madrid.”

She had been to Spain for five weeks the previous summer, but this time she had no job, connections or place to stay.

“First night, I stayed out at a hotel by the airport, and I cried myself to sleep,” she said, laughing. “I was like, what the heck am I doing here? But I went into the city, and for the first couple weeks I stayed in a hostel. I found a place to live, I found a job, and it was lonely the first couple months.”

Muller taught at the American Language Academy for five months before returning a few years later to teach there again after she completed her master’s.

“I got to teach little kids through adults who took English classes,” she said. “My minor is in English as a second language, so it was pretty incredible.”