So I left yesterday morning from Houston, with approximately 113 tons of stuff in 2 suitcases which I checked, one carry on which I lugged around the airport with me, and one very full purse. Shout out to my mom for fitting it all in my luggage. The flight from Houston to Chicago was uneventful. Once in Chicago, I had the opportunity to see the entire airport since I had to trek from one side to another to connect with my other flight. I stopped and had my last American meal, a cheeseburger and onion rings (so tasty), and arrived at my gate. I was a little panicked because I hadn't checked in to my flight from Chicago to Barcelona but it wasn't really a problem and I didn't have any trouble getting a seat that was not in the middle, which last overseas flight caused some motion sickness.
I sat around the airport for awhile, chatting with the people from my group, comparing what and how much we brought with us, and we finally boarded the place. Goodbye America, hello Europe. Only after 8 hours on one airplane.
The flight left Chicago at 4:40P and was set to arrive in Madrid at 7:40A (8 hours later). I think we left a little late, but my concept of time is completely disabled so who even knows. The inflight movies were crap, I didn't watch anything they offered, and read a book instead. I sat next to a lovely French couple. The man cradled his wife while she slept (which was so sweet), offered me everything he wasn't going to eat, and spoke to me in French like I'm fluent (even though most of his talking at me resulted in my nodding and laughing nervously). I know two words in French: merci and merde. Fortunately I was able to use both of them. The food was pretty close to terrible. Dinner was beef with some sauce, rice, snap peas, the hardest roll I have ever put in my mouth, a cold shrimp salad with a mayonnaise sauce served with a tomato wedge, 1 olive, and a decorative piece of lettuce. There was also processed gruyere product, a mini Twix, and some sort of desserty cake thing that I couldn't finish because it was that bad. I washed it down with red wine, which was luckily abundant, although since I'm older and wiser I managed to keep myself under control and not drink too much. The actual flying part was wonderful; very little turbulence, went by faster than I expected, and I even napped a little. I did pop a dramamine, mostly because I was bored, and I was really disappointed that I didn't slip into a drug induced coma like I did last time I took it. I'll just have to take more next time. Breakfast was a croissant with ham and cheese (I took the ham and cheese off because it was definitely Spam ham), a blueberry muffin, 2 grapes mixed with some melon, and a KitKat. Shortly after breakfast we landed and it was so nice to not be sharing the same airspace with 60 strangers anymore.
When we got to Madrid, it took us a solid 45 minutes to go from one gate to the connection because the airport in Madrid is surprisingly massive. We cleared passport control, and another round of security checks. At the security check, the guy was being mean and made only the Americans take off their shoes, even though I was wearing flip-flops as were a few other people. But I lived through it and my feet didn't fall off. We got to the gate and pretty much boarded right away. I proceeded to involuntarily pass out on the airplane (my body thought it was 2A) and wake up as we were landing.
Finally in Barcelona! I collected my luggage, which arrived in near perfect condition with everything that I put in there, met up with JOHN C. WILCOX (who giggled and waved at me and helped me with my luggage...hehehe) and took a bus to the Collegio. I am rooming with Amanda for the next 3 weeks. The dorms are really nice, more like a hotel than anything else. They are spacious, and have lots of drawers and shelves to put stuff on and AIR CONDITIONING. They're also clean and modern with easily accessible internet and will provide us with breakfast and dinner AND AIR CONDITIONING. I unpacked some of my stuff, but the AC hadn't quite cooled down the room and I was very tired, so I decided to strip down and pass out. Amanda and I managed solid 2 hour naps. After napping, Amanda and I went to the supermarket because I wanted something to snack on and we both wanted bottled water. Now we're just waiting for dinner, which is at 8:30, and then as a group we're going to a festival that's like a half hour walk from here.
Now I'm going to take a shower and start looking at apartments. Also, I PROMISE my entries will get more interesting.
