Travel to Spain and First Day Adventures

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It has definitely been an interesting day thus far. It started at 5:30 in Raleigh and realizing how tired this past semester has made me. So tired in fact that I did not realize that my flight left at 10:40 am instead of 8:30 am like I thought. Well, it was disappointing when I had to wait around for 2 hours after getting up so early.

One piece of good fortune almost fell in my lap after I went to the gate. The attendant at the desk asked for a volunteer to take a flight that was an hour later than mine to New York so that someone that bought the ticket at the last minute could have a seat. In return they were offering a $300 flight voucher for another plane ticket in the future. I had a layover in New York that was about 5 hours long so I thought, what the heck? It ended up not panning out but the guy at the desk thanked me for the help and credited my frequent flyer account with 1500 miles. Kinda cool.

The first flight was short and lasted only about an hour and a half. The coolest part was shortly after take-off we circled around and I saw and x-shaped building and I thought it looked cool. “What building could that be,” I wondered. It reminded me of Bragaw residence hall. A lot like Bragaw. I reminded me so much in fact that I looked around it and saw the residence halls of Sullivan and Lee. I saw the tri-towers. I saw the library and the Court of Carolinas. I could see all of campus and then I could see Centennial Campus (shockingly big). I looked down the road and saw Avent Ferry Rd. and found my apartment. I thought it was kind of cool that I was able to get to see my Raleigh once more before leaving. Its kind of weird because you know of all the things that happen there and yet it fit all into one picture.

Landing in New York was about the only other part worth mentioning. You can see Atlantic City and then the suburbs start shortly after and it turns into a sprawl that last until the city peaks up in Manhattan.

After landing I made my way to my gate. Well I tried to. There are no signs in JFK anywhere and no maps to get oriented I had to ask a few people to get to the AirTrain to get to my terminal. I got there and found out that that Iberian Airlines did not open their desks another two hours. So I take a big gulf of air to satisfy my hunger temporarily and waited. Afterward I had to navigate through expensive restaurants that litter the international terminal. I was actually glad to find McDonalds. From there I sat down At gate 4 and waited for another 2 hours for my flight to start boarding. Should have gotten a shorter layover.

The flight was full; you can ask the other 450 people that were there. The food was great and I enjoyed both meals that they provided. For dinner we got a cheese and tomato slices on lettuce, flavored chicken with rice and greens, and a cheesecake dessert. For breakfast before we landed we received a ham and cheese sub, yogurt covered fruit bites, an apple muffin, and a bite sized snickers. The flight did not however have a personal screen on the seats so I could not entertain myself with anything. But I got through it and landed anyway.

The Terminal of Madrid is what gave me the biggest problem. I landed in terminal 4 and needed to get to terminal 1. I spent the first 20 minutes going through the maze from the gate. Customs consisted of a guy that said “hola,” stamped my passport, and “gracias.” Then I spent my time in vain searching for a map of the terminal. It was fruitless because there are no maps of the terminal. Then I took a 20-minute bus ride to the fabled terminal 1. When I got to the terminal I was wore out completely. I waited there for 45 minutes for someone to come out before pretty much the entire group did. The group of us then waited for our professor. Then we waited for the last two members of our group to make there. After giving up we set out for Segovia. I blinked in and out of consciousness and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Spanish countryside. Arriving in Segovia we were thrust onto our host families. None of who speak English. That was interesting. I am picking it up faster by the end of the day but it was rough going at first. I did a lot of head nodding and accepting of facts that I should not have done. That was stupid. After meeting them they fed us lunch which is the largest amount of food that I have had in one meal.

The next thing on the agenda was to get a briefing on what was to go down while we were in Spain. I think that putting 22 people that haven’t had a full night sleep in 36 hours and have a stomach full of food into a lecture in a language that not all of them understand (sorry) is stupid. I was halfway asleep before one of the professors asked me a question and had answer “no sé” or I don’t know. We then got to explore where they showed us the areas we would be meeting and shops in the area that gave us the ability to see the area around us and gave me an opportunity to get lost and walk around for and other 30 minutes.

I got back to the place and had a small meal of spaghetti. Now I am writing this blog in the hopes of going to bed in the next 15 minutes. Which will happen. So be on the lookout for my next entry.

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Photos

Aquaduct
I thought this was just a cool shot of the aquaduct. I wonder what the Romans who built this would have thought.

Main Campus During Take-off
This was what main campus looked like for the plane window.

Segovia Skyline
Skyline of Segovia witha backdrop of the surrounding mountains.