Hey Everyone!
I know I haven’t put anything on here yet, but everything has just been crazy! I think I’m finally starting to get adjusted to the daily life here in Pamplona, but everything here is amplified and more exciting because I’m so far from home. Anyway, the plane ride was not bad at all. I had some problems with security at the airport in Dayton, but when I finally got on the plane I had about a two hour flight to Atlanta where I had about an hour layover. This was my first encounter with Spanish because I spent the time talking to a family from Hawaii who was taking a trip around Spain. I described everything to them since I’ve been there before, and they were very interested in everything.
When I got on the plane in Atlanta, I realized that I was going to get to spend the trip in first class! I’ve obviously never done that before and let me tell you, it was pretty sweet! I sat down in my plush, comfortable, reclining seat where I could extend my legs completely out in front of me. I was greeted with a complimentary bag of travel-sized items including a sleep mask, socks, and earplugs among other things. Almost immediately I was handed a dinner menu and asked if I would like to start the evening with some juice or champagne. I opted for an orange juice (is it legal yet since I’m technically still in the US?) and selected the chicken breast for dinner. A few minutes later a lady came by asking if I’d like a newspaper as she pointed to my options. I chose El País and skimmed over several Spanish articles before deciding to rest my brain for what will await me in the coming weeks. The only problem was that there was something wrong with the bathrooms so we had to sit in the airplane for an hour and a half while they worked on them (good thing I had a comfortable seat). That wouldn’t have been too much of a problem except that I only had 40 minutes to spare before I had to meet the group in Madrid so I knew I was going to be late.
When we finally took off, I watched the movie “Stranger than Fiction” with Will Ferrell while I ate dinner and then slept until the flight attendant woke me up for breakfast. Everything was great until we landed and I couldn’t find the rest of the group. I tried to use a pay phone to call the program director, but I couldn’t figure out how to use it. Eventually I pulled out my map of the airport (I felt like such a dork!) and asked the policía where the meeting place was. I found the program director waiting there and we rushed to the bus to meet the others. I found out that I was actually lucky because two other girls from our group got stuck in Atlanta and couldn’t get to Pamplona until the next day (without luggage!). Anyway, we were on the bus for an hour before we stopped to eat our first Spanish meal. It was a salad with tuna, chicken with some really good potatoes, delicious bread, and flan. I had my first experience with wine (yuck!), but maybe I’ll grow accustomed to it while I’m in Europe. After lunch we got back on the bus for 4 hours, and it snowed for the majority of the trip. I thought we were going to get away from the bad weather when we left Athens, but it looks like we brought it with us. Anyway, we got to El Sario, one of the buildings at the University and all of the families were waiting for us in a reception area. Stay tuned to meet the familia…
