Un disastre en el aeropuerto

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I¨
Im sitting in a cyber cafe right now in....Madrid! I made it safely yesterday with only a few minor glitches. I left from Charlotte at 5:20 on the 29th and flew from there to Newark, NJ. It was really cool flying into that airport because I could see the Empire State building and the Statue of Liberty from there. I then took a flight to Lisbon, Portugal. The seat that was assigned to me was a window seat except, ironically, there was no window there at all because it was the exit row. So I quickly grabbed one of the middle seats (you know the ones with 4 seats across and was able to sleep for about 3.5 hours on the plane. I landed in Portugal around 8:30, or 2:30 a.m. in my body´s time. I wasn´t too tired though because I was very aware of how alone I was in a foreign country. If I fell asleep, I was screwed! The plane to Madrid was suppose to leave at 11:50 and arrive at 1:30. well, we didn´t take off until 1:20! When I finally got to Madrid, I waited for about 30 minutes before I got my baggage. One bag. So I waited some more...and still my other bag didn´t come through. There were about 10 of us on the flight that didn´t get our bags and they all kept saying "Es un disastre en el aeropuerto!" So meanwhile, I was thinking, "crap, I don´t have my bag, I´m in a foreign country BY MYSELF, and my spanish skills, well, lets just say they´re going to be stretched trying to inform the airport that half my stuff is missing! So I fill out this form and as best I can tell this lady about my situation. She says they will try their best to find it but they have been having problems lately with people stealing luggage...great.

Then begins the next part of my adventure...somehow getting myself to this lady´s house. I take a taxi and he drops me off at her street. He says he has no clue where apartament 4 is and leaves. So I start walking the street. Evetually I find the apartment and haul my bag up 4 flights of stairs. (I was very thankful for only having one suitcase then!) My senora was not there, but her daughter, Atara, was. Atara is 18 years old and was nice to me but seemed like she didn´t really want to associate with me. We had dinner together (chicken and mushrooms) and then we went swimming in her apartment complex´s pool. Then my senora, Margarita, came home from work. She was so nice and showed me where the metro and the closest supermercado were. We came back around 10:30 at night, had dinner then 😊, and then I was so exhausted, I had to go to sleep. This morning I didn´t wake up til 11 😊 but I really needed sleep. Before I was about to go out into the city, my luggage arrived!!! Thank God! I am so lucky!
Today I have just been exploring the city, taking the metro to different stops and seeing what was there. It took me awhile before someone could show me where there was a cyber cafe so I could write! But I am really enjoying myself in Madrid and cannot wait til the rest of my group arrives tomorrow. I love and miss you all 😊

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Comments

[Mom]

Glad the bag made it!
I'm so glad that you made it and the bag did too. You sound much better today. Yesterday you sounded tired and weary. Keep us posted. When will you get your phone working? We will call you whenever you want. We love you and miss you.

[auntie ann]

glad for you
so glad you luggage arrived.. it is an awful feeling .. remember when Audrey and me didn't have ours.. your updates are awesome.. i will keep watching for them.

[Ashley!]

Wow!
Hey Laura! I cannot believe all that mess you had to go through on your first day in Spain! You definitely handled it better than I would have though- I probably would have freaked out! Anyways, I'm glad to see you arrived safely. Have so much fun! I look forward to reading more updates! Miss you!