Saturday June 22, 2013 to Sunday, June 23, 2013
I spent the night with Momma, Daddy, and Shadow and then
spent the morning running last minute errands. We ate lunch at Applebee’s with
Papa and Gramma. And then after final packing, snuggling with the kitty again,
rechecking the list again, snuggling the kitty, and getting Caribou Coffee on
our way out of Lincoln, we made it to Omaha. I think I stopped at every typical
stopping place to hug Momma and Daddy one more time. (I may have cried a little.)
But then I pulled my Big Girl Pants on and showed the TSA officer my boarding
pass and passport. Her daughter is also named Whitney, which is sort of the
coolest. When I got to the security checkpoint I recognized a fellow Husker,
Colby, which made the transition to flying without Momma and Daddy or a
formalized group much easier. I got to gate A7 where I joined the 15 other
members of my group. We were really concerned that we would miss our flight in
Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow because there was only a 45-minute delay and
O’Hare is notorious for delays. But we took a group photo and boarded the plane
to Chicago.
Flight: Omaha to O’Hare
- I sat
next to Robert, a pilot, and he probably hated that I asked a million questions
for a job that is “sort of like an oversized bus driver.” I got a complementary snack because of my proximity to Robert, which was pretty awesome.
- I sat in the aisle seat of 7B which I was very thankful for because it was a tiny plane of only 1 seat on one side and 2 seats on the other.
O’Hare
- We came
into gate G1 and had to book it to H15
- I turned
into counselor mode and kept counting to 16
- I pulled
my backpack out of Daddy’s Houdini bag and everyone was amazed at how much the
Houdini bag could hold
- And not
surprisingly our plane was delayed in O’Hare for 50 minutes so we didn’t need
to book it as much as we did.
Flight: O’Hare to London
- I watched
‘Jack the Giant Slayer’ which was good and a fuzzy NCIS before turning it to
Circus Olay and it’s calm music and took a Benadryl and a nap.
- During
the first hour we were served dinner and I didn’t trust the chicken so I got
pasta and that had more cheese in it than a cheese factory. But my tomatoes on
my salad were yummy and I drank my weight in orange juice, which required me to
climb over Anne later in the flight.
- I was 44F
next to Anne from my group and an older couple who played cards and napped on
the same pillow. We were in the second to last row in the middle that had 2
seats, aisle, 4/5 seats, aisle, 2 seats.
- About 3
hours away from landing and solidly into a good nap when that one person has to
open their window shade and let the morning light into the cabin. Rotating the
other way and pulling the complementary blanket over my head easily solved that
dilemma. I must have looked like a big, blood red caterpillar.
-We were
also fed breakfast, but I only ate the yogurt because my stomach was felling topsy-turvy.
London Heathrow Airport
- Did you
know that if you transfer terminals- like we did- you have to go through security
again? It’s only more fun after taking a bus, thinking you’ve lost two people,
having to show your passport, take out every single liquid in your carry-on that
you’ve been using all day, and then getting “chosen” to a random pat down like
the little aliens and the claw in Toy Story. I felt like Daddy’s
security-screening karma had seeped into his bag and helped me get chosen.
- We
finally got our entire group through security, located our gate a floor below,
fought/ran through a crowded staircase to get onto the airplane to Madrid.
Flight: London Heathrow to Madrid
 |
| My view out of the window of a plane of our size. |
- Once we
landed we headed to the baggage claim and my luggage was maybe the second one
off of the plane and then maybe 6 or 7 bags out of the 16 of us came in the
first batch. Then there was a lull in baggage appearance and we hoped that we
didn’t lose half of our bags. I thought it was sort of ironic that I got my
luggage when I packed not anticipating receiving it. I was also the second
smallest in terms of square footage of luggage space- so Momma, I could’ve
packed more clothes! One girl did end up losing her luggage so hopefully that
will turn up in a few days.
Madrid/ Madrid to Toledo
-We found
Chris outside waiting for our group one hour after we were supposed to be there
thanks to all of our delays. We then got on a bus to take us to the terminal
with the bus that would take us to Toledo.
- My
stomach was up in arms and couldn’t decide if it needed to burp or throw up but
eventually it decided I needed to hiccup twice and window watch.
Toledo
-We arrive
at the Law School part of the Universidad de Castilla- La Mancha (similar to
the East and City campus set up at UNL) and meet our families. I was so
nervous, but my family is wonderful. My host mom is Sandra, host dad is Alfonso and they have two daughters: Lara and Alba. (I think that’s how you spell
them, I’m horrible at spelling in English let alone Spanish.) I talked with
Sandra, Alfonso/Alfredo and Lara until 7pm when it was time to walk over to the
Casco (the walled in, older part of city) to begin our walking tour. It takes
about 15-20 minutes to walk from the casa to la Universidad and the entrance
point is the escalators.
- The rule
of thumb is if you are inside of the walls don’t cross any rivers or walls and
if you are lost walk uphill to the castle which is the high point and then work
your way from there. It’s maybe 20 minutes to get from one side of the walls to
the other. And the streets are so stretchy and narrow and winding that it could
be easy to get lost, but hopefully after a few days I’ll gain an inner map.
- For cena
(dinner) I had spinach and tomato salad, mozzarella stick bites, pan, and
caramello pudding. It was very yummy and we looked up Nebraska on the computer,
which was hard to explain that we only have one team we ALL follow (futbol was
on TV), and we grow corn for fuel or feed not human food.
- I took a
shower since I felt so gross from traveling all day and walking a bunch and as
I was brushing and braiding my hair afterwards it sort of hit me that even
thought the shower was similar in size to a camp shower, I had in fact just
showered in Spain. I wanted to call Momma to tell her all about my revelation
but then I remembered the whole ‘not having access to phones’ thing but
remembered my blog so I’ve typed 2 ½ pages on word since I don’t have the wifi
password yet and typed it all out.
- I’ll add
more about my room later if I remember to do so.
Love you all!
So glad to hear about your travels! How old are the two daughters? You should have taken the bigger blue suitcase since you were checking that bag! I didn't even think about it when we were packing. Love you! xxoo Momma
ReplyDeleteThe oldest daughter is older than I am, and the youngest is younger than me. I'd say about 21 and 15 if I had to guess.
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