Hello, Spain!

So I’m safe and sound here in Madrid. The flights weren’t too bad. The overnight flight from JFK to Paris was alright; I could not get to sleep because I was uncomfortable and cold. The lady next to me ended up putting her blanket over her head to keep warm. It was kind of scary opening my eyes and seeing this mummy looking figure to my left! She was really nice and was traveling to northern Spain to do a wine tour with her friends. She spoke English, French, Italian, and had picked up some Spanish, which she said was from all the Spanish men she dated... She reminded me so much of Elizabeth Gilbert from Eat, Pray, Love. I made friends with the girl to my right, Sasshine, who is ironically in the room right next to me! I’ve made new friends and so far we’re all on the same floor. Anyway back to my flights… The plane we took from Paris to Madrid was HUGE, with double levels. The best part was watching TANGLED on my tv!! I was in my happy place lol. I love that movie. The flight was extremely turbulent which made sleeping extra difficult. So I only ended up getting about 15 minutes of shut-eye. Needless to say I’m still tired and adjusting.

I left my sunglasses on the plane from Paris to Madrid *tear* but I did sleep for almost the whole flight. I started feeling really sick towards the end though. The entire descent into Madrid, which lasted about 30 minutes, was extremely turbulent but more of like a fast up-and-down shaky movement. My stomach got really upset and I was never so happy to be on solid ground as I was when we landed in Madrid. It was funny, my brain had snapped into Spanish mode and I was trying to figure out all these ways to say “I am going to be sick,” but luckily I never had to use them :) The terrain of Spain from the air was very hilly and, well, brown, with scattered trees and such. It was quite a drastic difference from the French terrain, at least what I saw near Paris. It was very flat and everything was very straight and organized looking. At one point it looked like a puzzle. There was not one tree out of line. Spain was almost the opposite.

France from the air

When we landed in Madrid my luggage never came and it turns out it was still in Paris. They had put it on the next flight so Melissa and I had to wait about an hour for it to come. I got it pretty quick but then we had to wait for the other FORSPRO (Foreign Study Program) kids on that flight, and that took at least another hour – which felt like five at this point – because two of them lost their luggage as well. They stayed behind just like we had to so we were finally able to take the bus to our dorms. After about 30 hours of travel, we arrived safely :) All in all it wasn't so bad, it could have been a lot worse! I'm glad we didn't have to deal with flight cancellations and being put up in a hotel for a night, like some of the kids had to do.

 PS: Thank you to Katie McGuire and DiAndrea Lewis for their lovely plane mail :) I love you guys!