In Sevilla! Waiting for my real life to begin.

5 September 2008
Sevilla, España. 02:15.

I’m sitting here in the lounge for my hotel because I’m a cheap ass and booked a red-eye from Madrid and decided not to book another night in a hotel. Lol. The guy at the desk was really nice…wait, I guess I should let you know how I got here first.

So after I went through security at Madrid-Barajas, I had a couple hours to kill. I window-shopped for a while, ate at McDonalds (first Big Mac in 3 years…they’re smaller than I remember), and listened to my iPod. I kept checking the board to see what gate I had to go too, but like Heathrow, this airport doesn’t list it until it’s actually time to board. (Like I said, European airports suck). So I tried to charge up my laptop a bit—I found this really really comfortable (not) spot on the side of this restaurant where there was a plug and got charged up a bit until my butt couldn’t take it anymore.

So then I took to just taking walks up and down the terminal with my heavy ass backpack, occasionally stopping and sitting for a while, trying not to look like a desperate lost American so people would stop staring at me.

Around 25 minutes before my departure time, they finally posted the gate number, and so then I walked all the way down to the end (because of course it was the furthest gate possible) and got in line. The two girls in front of me were also studying abroad in Sevilla (I guessed from their English conversation and the “Cross Cultural Studies” folder Saxton(sic) had. She and Charlotte were with the same program that I’d never heard of.

(Oh, and that’s one thing you’re going to have to get used to on this blog. I’m going to use people’s actual names instead of “one of the people” or “one of my roommates.” I’ll try to provide enough context that you’ll understand who I’m talking about.)

I found that that Saxton (really have no idea how to spell her name…it’s weird) had missed her flight because she was re-checking in bags because they had accidentally routed them to Barcelona, so she had to run to baggage claim before they were sent there. Then apparently the flight she missed was cancelled anyway (due to the runway issues in my previous post. Charlotte’s flight had also been cancelled earlier that day.

We got on the plane (20 minutes later than the original boarding time), and then we sat on the runway for a while because apparently there was luggage onboard but the passenger was missing…and that’s a flying no-no these days. So we eventually taxied out and got airborne. I ended up getting a seat next to Charlotte and tried to help her text her boyfriend and mom (Spanish cell phones are weird). Eventually I found out that she’s been taking flight lessons at Sewanee College and I was instantly jealous. She said she’ll probably become a teacher (Spanish major) too.

Then we took off and I passed out. Iberia Airlines likes to play weird bad music during their flights. Seriously, I heard the same song four times on a 50 minutes flight.
Then we landed and went to baggage claim. I got my bags, but neither of the girls’ luggage came out. So we went to the desk and blah blah blah they’re getting delivered tomorrow. We got a taxi (after walking up and down the lines of empty cabs) and got rides to our hotels. My hotel > their hotel.

Anyway, I’m probably going to take a nap here on this comfy couch. The rest of my program should be arriving around 9 or 10 a.m. It is really difficult to speak Spanish at 2:15 in the morning, and I sighed audibly when I asked “¿Habla ingles?” and he responded “Solo un poquito.” So I’m half yawning and sighing and trying to hold myself together as I’m trying to explain that I’m here extremely early and that the rest of my program will be here in the morning and please could I wait somewhere for them? The guy looked my name up on the CEA roster and let me do it…my bags are behind the security desk. Yay.

Ok. Time to read/nap.

EDIT: It's around 1:00 now, and I've been checked into my room and everything and even met some people from the program. We changed our money and a couple of them went out for a run. I'm in no condition to try running, so I passed. I'm excited that I have internet now in the hotel, at least until tomorrow when I move to my casa, which I'm sure doesn't have internet.

I'll post sometime after Orientation tomorrow and let you all know how that went.