Anniversary

On this, the anniversary of my first day in Spain, here's the post that I never got around to adding:

February 1, 2007. Day one. Over. Actually, more like two days with the time change and our arrival time. There was some horrible turbulence. I really thought I had met my match at one point, especially during dinner. Choking down the chicken was hard enough without sea-sickness. At one point, the tray of drinks fell over onto a passenger. Pandemoniom erupted for a few minutes. It was kind of disconcerting to see the flight attendants get so upset.

After dinner, the lights went off for the in-flight movie, and I couldn’t get sound or lights overheard because our console was not working. So I tried to sleep. But this did not work, despite my best attempts. Approximately three hours after they served dinner they threw the lights on and breakfast was served. So at midnight, approximately 6am local time, I was eating a muffin. It was weird to say the least

When we got to Madrid it was about 7:30 in the morning but it was still dark. Also disconcerting. However, this fact was soon overlooked upon disembarking from the aircraft (related sidenote, the airline was working this whole bilingual thing for a while, and as we got closer and closer to Spain it kind of tapered off, which was hard to try to predict which language they were going to come at you with next). The airport in Madrid is a monument to modern, minimalist architechture. Also, the gates are very close to the ground, which necessitates an elaborate labrinyth of ramps and stairways. So we get off the aircraft, no one knows where we are supposed to go. We go through customs, down three sets of escalators, to a train station. Somewhere along this journey, some of us realize that we need to be at gate M, which the way to said gate is on the opposite side of the glass partition. But we can’t get there, so we are forced to board the train.

The train takes us to another station, where we must ascend more levels of escalators, only to walk around and descend more to another station. We board another train. This train, kid you not, takes us right back to where we needed to be, which if you recall was the other side of the glass partition at the starting point. No joke, this took a half-hour schlepping all of my bags in my coat. Plus I had basically pulled an all-nighter.

Anyway, we make it to M, but there is no posting for what gate number at terminal M we are supposed to be at. So some of us plopped down at the closet one, and turns out that was our gate! We had a great view, although the airplanes were blocking it, of a mountain range in the distance and some buildings off to the other side. With the sun coming up and reflecting off the mountains, it was gorgeous. As an aside, I would be really curious to see the layout of this airport. It was absolutely the most annoying way to travel, except they did really control the flow of traffic by sending you on circuitous routes.

Anyway, the flight to Seville was cramped and was mostly students from our program. Needless to say, we all slept. We got to Seville and were met by some staffers, who loaded us onto the bus and carted us off to the hotel. It was very disorienting to step off the plane and Spanish being thrown everywhere. It’s also been rough adjusting to it, because I’m tired and I can’t focus as much as I want to. Plus it catches me off guard – I’ve never had a need to use Spanish outside of the classroom so I’m afraid to use it. Couple that with the fact that I’m probably one of a handful of students who is not a Spanish major and minor here, and let me tell you, London was looking really good at about 4pm. But I realized that I just have to have confidence and I can’t let other people intimidate me, as much as I want to allow them to. I can speak this language, I wouldn’t have come here knowing I couldn’t. So I just have to do it and not be afraid to make a mistake.

The hotel they put us up at is pretty swanky, meals have been a fun time, and I might have found some kindred spirits with regard to my pacing of meals. Nice spreads all around, although I’m starting to feel like lard. Maybe tomorrow I can work some Pilates in. We’re getting up to take a placement exam, then moving into our home. My house is right near the Alcazar, Universidad de Sevilla, and the bus station. I’m pretty excited about this, and I think it could be within walking distance from school if I had a nice day.

I’ve met some nice people thus far, and met up with the Ithaca crew. It’s been good to have them here. The only downers so far have been the fact that my face wash leaked in my bag (I can hear my mother groaning 3000mi away) and the intense homesickness I felt when I was first left to my own devices. All I wanted to do was be back in Ithaca. However, I’m here, tomorrow is a big day, we’re hoping to hit the town this weekend, so things should pick up. I’m just hoping my maniac-depressive mood swings can hold off long enough for me to get through it.