Arrival & Orientation Day 1

From 9/5

There were no lines at passport control and I zoomed right through.  I waited for my bags for about a half an hour.  Good news (and this is rare when it comes to baggage claim), my bags were the second and third to come around the conveyor belt.  Fantastic!  I loaded them on a convenient, free cart and rolled on out to the arrival pick-up area.  As soon as the automatic doors slid open there were five staff members with a sign and huge smiles waiting to greet me.  For a second I thought they were more excited than I was (but that couldn’t be possible).  I checked in with them, met another American (with equally as much luggage), and was escorted to a taxi.  We were lucky enough to be able to share the cab and split the fare.  The ride was short but I was exhausted.  I was amazed and overjoyed to be back in Madrid.  I love it here!  It is beautiful and alive, and warm today.    

There was a three-course lunch before the start of the orientation, which lasted maybe two hours.  The orientation part only took about 30 minutes today.  Tomorrow’s will be much more extensive.

After the orientation we had some free time to walk around again.  I walked to look for a wifi connection.  I didn’t have a connection for long, so I only sent an email or two.  Hopefully I’ll get to update you again soon (and post in retrospect).   After that mini quest, there was a “paseo”  (walk/tour) through a bit of Madrid with Spanish students.  My tour guide seriously needed a lesson from a Lion Scout.  We all walked behind her and she didn’t face us, so it was nearly impossible to hear her.  She showed us all around different areas that were relatively close.  I have no sense of how the different areas were connected though.  I need a good map and a day of getting lost and finding my way home – then I’ll be good to go.  The Spanish student left when we were what I thought was part way through our tour, which meant that we got to hang out and walk about and find our way back.  It was really cool and super easy – we ended up taking the Metro back to our hotel (where we have orientation). 

I kept having these crazy flash backs to the last time I was in Madrid and remembering certain places.  It was such an odd feeling to be remembering things and street corners and buildings and statues.  I had no idea how close together the places from my memories are to each other.  It’s so neat.  I can’t wait to go explore more and find more corners of town that I recognize (and even more that I’m clueless about right now).  Along the walk we saw some unual sights.  The most noteworthy include the woman carrying around a rat like a baby, the store front packed with creepy dolls, and the insane foot traffic lined up on Gran Via to see some famous, handsome actor (not sure who it was, but the age group looked like it was for Spain’s version of Justin Beiber).  My group for the “paseo” was the same group that dined for the hefty lunch together, so we were starting to bond.  It was really nice.  We ended up hanging out the rest of the afternoon and then had a light dinner together before heading back to the hotel (where I am now). 

I’m stunned by the fact that this morning (yesterday really) I woke up in my own bed at home and everything was normal and now my world is upside down.  So far, two thumbs up for Madrid.

For today, I was clearly still an American.  Good news is attempts at being a madrileña are in the works.  There will be many café homework and people watching sessions, paella meals, and tapas crawls.

Tomorrow is a big day – hours of orientation in the morning followed by meeting our host families and placement testing in the afternoon.  Not sure what the resto f the day looks like but that’s enough to keep me entertained!

G’night for now.

PS – A HUGE SHOUT OUT TO ALL OF THE NEW THON CAPTAINS!  CONGRATULATIONS AND I CAN’T WAIT FOR FEBRUARY!!

En route

From 9/4 – 9/5

Well, my guess from last post was about right.  My luggage was crazy heavy and the airlines love to slam over-packers like me with tons of fees.  Good news is about two hours before I left for the airport I came up with my “genius” plan.  My original packing setup was to take one big duffel bag stuffed with clothes and a little wheeled duffel as my carry-on.  The new plan consisted of the same two bags, but with the little bag being put into a larger duffel.  I am able two check two bags for free, so the amount of stuff that fit in one bag, was put in two bags instead.  Seems like a waste of space and a hassle for just about everyone handling the bags.  But if it saves me $175 in fees, I’m game.  This just means more shopping money when I arrive (that’s just what you had in mind, right Mom?).

Okay, so I’m at the airport, with the realization that in the midst my genius bag maneuver I forgot to take my jacket and neck pillow out to carry-on.  Oops.

First note on culture differences: Spanish humor. 

I sat at the terminal for a while before boarding.  Someone had left a laptop bag on the seat next to me while she went to the bathroom.  A Spanish couple sat down on the other side of the bag.  Until the woman returned they just made jokes about the bag being, well…, a bomb.  Most Americans, I’d think, would be more hesitant and cautious rather than making light of this.  They weren’t being too quiet about it either; it made the girl behind us get up and move when they kept repeating it.  I wasn’t sure how to react, but I was uncomfortable.

On board…

I got to my seat and asked for help getting my bag above my seat.  The man (who happens to be Spanish) was nice and helpful.  He then commented on my Penn State shirt.  Small world – he works at PSU College of Medicine.  This was my second encounter with a Penn State fan in about two hours.  Nice.  He later proceeded to make a comment that he hopes my host mom isn’t a psycho (again with that Spanish humor… especially considering he is in the mental health field).

Since he works at the College of Medicine (in Hershey) as a psychiatrist, my first instinct was (OBVIOUSLY) to start talking about THON.  When I asked if he likes THON, he said he isn’t a big fan, and he prefers soccer.  I tried clarifying and he started talking about American football vs. soccer.  I think something got lost in translation….

At first I thought we wouldn’t hit it off and I hoped I’d get a lot of sleep.  Wrong on both accounts (although unrelated).  It turns out his mom is a linguistics professor at the University in Madrid where I can take classes.  Score.  We talked a bunch about Spanish and Madrid and all kinds of chit chat.  I’ve had worse people to sit next to, that’s for sure. 

I will now note that there are two very adorable babies in the rows next to me.  Let’s see if they will behave for this flight or cause me to change my mind on their preciousness…

About 40 minutes (if that) into the flight one of the attendants asked over the PA system if there were any doctors on board.  My mind instantly jumps to that excellent House episode with the scuba diver and the power of suggestion (I know some of you know which episode I mean, but if you haven’t seen it – I recommend it).  Good news – a doctor (with a super cute baby) is sitting diagonally from me.  Prime seating. 

Jeff and I always had a favorite part to the safety instruction video – the safety vest manual inflation demonstration.  Today my instructions were live and right in front of my row rather than on a video.  There was an attendant demoing in each aisle.  I’m pretty sure they didn’t get along; it looked as if they were competing for the Best Safety Instruction Guide Award.  Entertaining.  I have to say that she did a pretty accurate replication of our favorite part, Jeff.  You would have chuckled – I know I did. 

I read about a chapter of The Help, which is excellent so far.  Then the super-high in sodium and less-than-tasty dinner arrived (pasta).  While I ate I watched Something Borrowed, a kind of cute chick flick with Jim from The Office.  Then I decided to attempt to sleep.  By now it is about 10:30 Eastern Time.  This failed miserably and got reasonably uncomfortable.  I gave up before 1AM.  Continue reading for a beautiful experience after “napping” but beware it is kind of a long rant…

I think I’ll be at a loss for words for the beauty I’m witnessing at the moment, but I’ll try to share it with you.  I’ve always been a fan of sunsets, but just recently I learned to love sunrises.  I got to enjoy their beauty a number of times in Israel a few months ago, but never in my life have I seen one like I am right now.  Since we are [what looks to be] really freaking high up in the air, most of the sky is still pitch black and speckled with bright stars.  It’s kind of like being in a planetarium (way better obviously…), only I’m missing the dome effect since I can only see out of these two one-foot windows.  When I look out my window, I can see every color.  Literally.  This is the fullest spectrum.  Every color is so defined and rich.  It’s crazy.  I’m so glad that I gave up on my failed sleeping attempts and opened my window when I did.  I’ve been watching for the last 25 minutes.  When I started looking I could only see a sliver of red and mostly blues and stars.  It must be a very clear, cloudless early morning because I can see a city all lit up below me.  I guess since its 1;15AM at home, and I’m scheduled to land within the hour, I’m probably looking at some fabulous European city.  I’m trying to consult the on-screen GPS map thingy, but it’s taking a long time to load.  Anyway, the closest I might ever get to a thing of this beauty again is by accessing this amazing memory and the spinning around in the paint swatch aisle of Lowe’s.  The view is so unreal and I pity everyone on board who is sleeping and missing this sight.  I tried multiple times to take a picture but that was unsuccessful when it was dark and starry.  I’ll remember this last half hour forever.   I have a lousy looking photo of the current, brighter state, but it doesn’t do it justice.  This was a super long rant on something that might be tricky to imagine, but I’m just so blown away by it I thought I’d try to explain it for you.

Far from doing it justice, but here is a taste of the view.

It’s ten minutes later and I can’t see the city under me anymore.  Now there is fluffy blanket of clouds, but when there are gaps I can see that the layer isn’t too thick; it is almost like you could skim them off the sky.  Neat : )  They turned the lights on and  are serving some funky looking roll; people are starting to realize the view out there…

Captain is welcoming me to Madrid!!!  15 minutes until arrival.  We left 40 minutes late and are arriving 15 minutes early.  Nice.

Circling around for arrival in some kind of holding pattern.  We are what feels and kinda looks like perpendicular to the ground and above lots of mountains…. Hmm….

Thanks for keeping me company in spirit on my flight : )