After a long and tiring day and a half, I finally started my semester in Spain. I flew out of Atlanta on Tuesday evening around 8:30 on British Airways. It was a "quick" 7 hour and 20 minute flight according to the captain. The flight went well except the food was less than stellar. I have flown British Airways before and the service was about the same but the in flight entertainment and food wasn't exactly what it was the last time I flew with them. Luckily my friend from UGA, Diego, was also on the same flight so I had someone to talk to. We enjoyed each others company and the free wine also made the flight somewhat more entertaining. I can never really sleep on long haul flights like that so I always feel out of it when I land.
Diego and I were worried about navigating the leviathan of an airport that is London-Heathrow International. I had about a 2 and half hour lay over and Diego had about 45 minutes longer than myself. Heathrow is such a crowded airport that they park most of the planes out on the tarmac and bus passengers in to the terminal. After our first bus trip into terminal 5, we had to figure out where the Iberia departures were and the British Airways European departures were for myself and Diego, respectively. Again we were fortune enough to both be leaving out of terminal 3. So we followed the signs to another bus that took us on a short 1o minutes ride around the airport. From there we had to jump through the hoops of security and Diego made the mistake of forgetting to take out his liquids in his carry on. 45 minutes later and a completely unpacked bag, he finally made it through. We caught our connecting flights and met up in the Madrid airport. I arrived first and bought an hour of wifi while I waited for Diego. I got my first test of my Spanish conversation skills when a young cab driver started to ask me who I was waiting on and if we would need a ride. I spoke with my best ability and I think he half understood me with frequent requests to start over. This made me feel a little overwhelmed with the fact that I have to do this for the next three months to function in Spain but hopefully with time my skills will improve. I also thought the cab driver, his name was Gabriel, was a litlle sketchy. I told him we were waiting on Diegos aunt to take us on the Metro to the hotel. She lives south of Madrid and took off work to come meet us. I felt grateful that we had a friendly local to help us navigate the Metro all the way to the Gran Vía stop that was right next to our Hotel. She spoke quickly in Spanish with Diego who is quite proficient because both his parents speak it at home with him. We finally arrived at the hotel and walked around for about 15 minutes after a shower and ate dinner with the rest of the group. Everyone seemed very eager to meet each other and we all felt nervous about the new people we would meet and what life would be like for the next three months. I will post more about the night life in Madrid and our journey to Valencia to start classes on Monday. Pictures to follow when I have more internet available!
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