My journey here was quite the long one. I don't sleep on planes - it's just a fact. Some people have an easy time of it, but I've never able to catch sleep while flying. So, I spent most of the flight reading, writing, listening to my iPod, talking with the Dutchman next to me, and reviewing Spanish verb tenses and vocabulary.
Once I arrived in Madrid it was 7 'o' clock in the morning. It took about 45 minutes to get through from one terminal to the other, go through the passport check, and find my gate. My plane wasn't leaving for another 3 and a half hours, so I had to find something to do.
As I was walking through the airport, something caught my eye. One side of Terminal 4 is windows - all windows, and outside, in the far distance, beyond the brown mini-mountains of Madrid, the sun was just peaking its head over the clouds. Amazed by all its pink, orange, and red glory, I watched the sun come up over Madrid and thought to myself how lucky I was to be there. Watching, spellbound, I offered up a sigh of thanks for a pretty seamless (if exhausting) journey. :)
Found breakfast at the airport. Another thing I love about European culture...the breakfasts. So healthy. A sandwich with jamon (ham) and cheese, a cup of fruit, yogurt, juice, and coffee. Brilliant. Then I settled on the ground (with the straps of my messenger bag wrapped around my shoulders) for a quick nap. An hour later (ha! oops!) I woke up, found my gate and was off to Alicante where I met Carla Botella (the Director of the Language and Culture Program at CIEE, and my dear friend) at the airport.
Today has been an amazing day and I will (no doubt) write more about it tonight, but for now, the sun is still out and I'd like to see as much of this city as I possibly can. So, stay tuned and have a pleasant day - whenever you are. I'm off to go be amazed, challenged, made a little bit uncomfortable, embarrassed because of my rusty Spanish :), and taken by the culture as much as possible!
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