On Travel

Hola todos!!

THIS IS AN EXCESSIVELY LONG POST, YOU’VE BEEN WARNED

Haha I realize some of my friends who might be reading this know next to nothing about why I’m in Spain. I want to jokingly say we are all in the same boat. But on a serious note, I’m studying with BYU’s study abroad program here in Alcalá de Henares. Our program is about 14 people or so big. We go to school and take classes at the university here (yes, they’re all in Spanish. Yes I speak Spanish.). We stay with host families here, travel on the weekends to see different historical parts of spain, and have a lot of patience with language gaps.  I’ll be here until I go back home to Salt Lake in November to work before Christmas/winter semester starts.

So some stories:

First off I would just like to announce as a nearly factual personal opinion: there are seriously only 2 things experienced at an airport

1.     immediately starving when options are limited or nonexistent

2.     immediately having to pee when it is most inconvenient

also if you're me, you have probably forgotten to charge your cell phone.

If you’ve been keeping up with the saga that has been dubbed “crappy travel inconveniences”, this is an extension of those updates.

So back on Thursday and back in Milwaukee I had a suitcase, purse, backpack, and a flight to the east coast that would have then take me to Europe. As it turns out, I’d have to make new arrangements. I even got to the gate early enough to plot out my last supper… I had the most American meal I could think of (read: I could walk to in 3 minutes) so I had a big sloppy bacon cheeseburger from Johnny Rocket’s. But I was also really hungry and very American so there wasn’t much thinking involved. It was glorious.

Fast-forward 4 hours later, I’m still sitting in the Milwaukee airport. My flight out of North Carolina was cancelled for some reason; they never actually said why, I’m guessing weather or black magic. But oh man when they first told me about the cancellation it was an absolute nightmare. Panicked is not a big enough word for how strung-out I felt. The lady at the desk was talking out loud/at me trying to reroute the flight, but ultimately said it couldn’t be done here at the gate so I went directly back to ticketing (aka point A on the Milwaukee Adventure where you check in and drop off your suitcase). It’s funny because I immediately started thinking to myself “shoot I bet I forgot something. I bet I forgot something important and God is totally gonna hook me up… or maybe I still need to do something before I leave… why would my trip need to be delayed?”

To make a long story short because I realize I’m being lengthy about things that don’t really matter: airports are stressful and I really feel for the workers because they probably get asked a million identical questions daily, get fussed at for things that are out of their control, and nobody is ever that happy to be at the airport… that pretty much just sounds like the worst.

I will not apologise for the amount of airport selfies I have. I dedicate this picture and this caption to a fragment of my life I will never get back, waiting to be picked up at the airport.

Oh shoot haha and in case you were wondering I flew out the next day from Chicago a million hours later.

I actually was thrown on a coach bus to drive down to the Chicago airport because there was a slight delay on the flight from Milwaukee to Chicago and they didn’t want to risk missing my flight. It was more fun than flying, can’t really complain. And the bathrooms in a coach bus are way classier than an airplane!! And by classy, I mostly mean about 2 inches wider than a shoebox aka an airplane bathroom.

being a super dork taking pictures with my only travel companion

So anyhow, I’m typing this currently while on my way to Madrid. I was hecka nervous leaving yesterday and earlier today, but not any more which is great. I woke up for the last two days in a panic

OH CRAP I LEAVE THE COUNTRY TODAY AND MY SUITCASE IS LITERALLY ALL OVER THE FLOOR WHY

OH CRAP IM GOING TO SPAIN TODAY AND DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO ONCE I GET THERE

OH FREAKING CRAP I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW A TAXI WORKS IN ENGLISH??

God bless facebook and smart phones and the Chicago airport for giving me 10 more extra minutes of free wifi than Milwaukee because my roommate Kat had messaged me with slightly more detailed help to get me out of Madrid when I arrive. Crisis averted. I have euros, I have the address, I have half-a-brain… I can find a taxi. Quizás.

I actually thought this would be easier to write in a concise logical format and then I remembered that the way I tell stories verbally isn’t exactly concise or logical so… this is my writing style haha. Other interesting things of note:

            -It is freezing on this plane because I am in the emergency exit row and my toes are SO SAD ABOUT THIS

            -Since we’re flying overnight I get to eat dinner on a plane!! I like to keep my expectations low at this point, so I’m hoping for crackers and a cup of water. I know for a fact I can at least get a cup of water. #realisticexpectations. But also seriously refer to “basic airport rule of thumb #2” --- I’m also starving, so I’m pretty sure I’d happily eat a chocolate covered rock if that’s what they handed me.

            -totally watched this full-grown man blow up and cuss out the man working the desk and it was supes awkward… one of the moments where there is full-out shouting in public so everyone stops what they’re doing to watch. Yikes.

Jeeeeeez I have so much time to write…

I guess to kill time I’ll also mention that I wasn’t as panicked as I could have been because by freak coincidence I met a girl also from Milwaukee going to Madrid so we were both mildly inconvenienced and have since then bonded. She’s totally normal and we’re very similar in a broad sense- both 20, going to Madrid, studying abroad, speak a manageable amount of Spanish… that was enough for me to start running my mouth haha. ‘Cept she didn’t get to take the coach bus to Chicago what’s uppppp I love my life.

Haha well…. It’s almost 10pm according to my central time zone watch. I’ve made a lanyard/boondoggle, ate dinner, watched a movie, contemplated embryotic life based on the amount of space I’ve been allotted to sleep… Dang I definitely thought I’d sleep no problem.  And yet here I am and I think we have about 3 hours left. To be fair though I’ve done fantastically passing the time up to this point, to give myself credit where no one has really asked.

Anyhow I think the hardest part about being Mormon at the airport is that you just trust everyone else is doing their own thing and don’t look at you “like a target” or a dollar sign. And if I just generalized too broadly, let me restate it… PERSONALLY I hate having to remind myself to be paranoid at the airport. I’m just lazy and trusting and don’t want to half to carry my backpack with me in the bathroom stall. To me it’s excessive, and what the heck who would want my stuff? But I did watch the first 20 minutes or so of that new Will Smith movie “Focus” so I feel like I already know how to foil a pickpocket so… Mom I just want you to know I am being VERY SAFE with my things. VERY VERY SAFE. You can stop messaging me warnings about gypsies. I keep all my things with me, I make sure it’s zipped up, I wrap straps around my ankles if I can’t watch it 100%, I watch those around me, and when I had to use the bathroom I had my Milwaukee friend look after my stuff and I told her exactly where I kept my valuables so at least I wouldn’t be surprised by the betrayal of our newly formed friendship. That’s a joke haha. But I did say that and she didn’t rob me blind so…

MY DINNER WAS AWESOME AND SURPASSED ALL EXPECTATIONS. I really don’t know what I ate to be completely honest, but I just feel like that’s kind of my life now. It wasn’t sucky at all. I don’t really remember too much about eating it since I was so hungry I basically inhaled it. But I’m super curious how they got it to be hot… an oven on plane is too far-fetched, yeah? More black magic at the airport…

So many jokes when you have nothing better to do but babble!!

Jeez oh man this is way longer than I anticipated. Don’t ever tell me I’m bad at keeping you up-to-date!

Lotsa love y gozo,

JD