Finally in Spain

Today is the 12^th, and I arrived in Spain yesterday afternoon after a very interesting 15 hours. However, it worked out better than it could have. My itinerary consisted of taking a plane from Denver to Chicago, Chicago to Vienna, and then Vienna to Madrid. I got to the airport in plenty of time, but then the plane in Denver was leaking oil or something, and so we were delayed about an hour before we finally took off, and because of that, I missed my flight to Vienna where I was supposed to meet up with 14 other students to continue on into Madrid. So instead I ended up on a flight by myself that left three hours later than the original flight, and went to Zurich, Switzerland, instead and then to Madrid and I ended up in Madrid two hours sooner than the group I was supposed to be with. Switzerland was beautiful! The Zurich Airport isn’t that big, and you can see the surrounding landscape and towns pretty easily from inside the airport. When we were flying over the Alps, there was some snow, and it was about 40 degrees outside, so the weather wasn’t too bad. But when I got into Madrid it was raining, and it took me twenty minutes to walk from the gate to security for them to check my passport.

After calling my mom to let her know I was okay, and slamming my finger in the bathroom stall, I found out that I had to go across the airport to meet the group, and that was no easy task because the Barajas Airport is bigger than Chicago. But after I found the group, we took the metro and then the train to get to the director’s house where we stayed last night (Friday). On the train, one of the girls got robbed and she lost her wallet, which had credit cards, debit cards, insurance cards, $300 in American cash…lots of important stuff, but it didn’t have her passport, so that was lucky. And this guy Andrew talked to this man the whole ride on the train, and a couple of other people, just randomly talking to them trying to practice his Spanish.

Once we finally got to Dr. Shumway’s house, it was kind of crazy because he already has seven kids, plus him and his wife, then add 14 students. As we were making our way to his house, we sounded like a herd of cows or something because the wheels from our suitcases made a lot of noise on the cobbled streets, and someone actually called the police on us for making a disturbance. After getting all of our luggage inside and eating spaghetti, we found places for everyone to sleep by combining mattresses and making suitcases into beds, or just sleeping on couches.

Today was the day that we finally got to meet our families, and we met up with them at the Plaza de Cervantes by Dr. Shumway’s house. To our surprise (me and Brooke my roommate), our exchange father is in the hospital recovering from surgery due to a dislocated disk in back. So not only did we not meet him, but his wife Irene is there with him, so we actually haven’t met either one of them and we probably won’t until maybe Monday. Their son, Jave (Haw-ve) came and picked us up at the Plaza. Then we came back to their chalet, which is like a condo skinny and tall, which is really nice, and we got our stuff unpacked and put away. The room that Brooke and I have to share is pretty tiny, but the beds are stacked one on top of the other, and one rolls out from underneath when you go to bed. After a little while, one of the daughters got home, whose name is ironically Racquel, which is going to be kind of confusing. She tried to say my name and so did the brother and they had a hard time with it, so I think they might just call me Racquel too, which is okay. Oh, and their sister Ana has a son that goes by Nacho, but his real name is Ignacio. Go Nacho Libre!!

For lunch we had soup that’s basically ABC soup with stars instead of letters, and calamari with tomatoes, egg, and cheese. We also had bread kind of like french bread, and then for “postre”, or dessert, we had pineapple. The calamari was REALLY good, the texture was kind of funny, a little too chewy, but good. Then Brooke and I decided to go on a walk to kind of learn the area, and we found a mall that’s only about a block away, and some shops and banks and chocolaterías. The shops in Spain are very different than America. In America, we are used to Walmarts, and stores that specialize in every different area, but in Spain, each store has a different specialty. You could go to a massive shoe shore, or clothing only, and find a very large variety of selections.

When we went to the mall, we were trying to find a map of Alcalá and an internet café, because we don’t have a map, and our host family doesn’t have internet at their house. So we asked a cop in the mall about the café, and he didn’t know where one was, so we continued walking and then we remembered about the map, so we turned around and found him again. Almost immediately, he asked us if we were from the States, and we said no, and then he asked us if we were Mormon, and of course we said yes. It turned out that he was Mormon too, and when I asked him how he knew, he said he just had a feeling. He also asked if we were from Utah, which is pretty much a required question if you say you are Mormon J. Anyway, it was just really cool that he “just knew” we were Mormon too, I guess you can’t take for granted that Heavenly Father knows where you are all the time, and everything happens for a reason.

Right now, Brooke and I are just sitting at home, because Racquel and Jave went to the hospital to see their dad. We found out quickly that electricity is very different here in Spain. She went to use my blow dryer, which isn’t that powerful, and immediately the end of it turned bright orange, and then lost power. We think it would probably be easier to just go buy a cheap one somewhere so that way we can avoid any problems in the future.