Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

My plane flight over wasn’t too bad, I was sitting next to a nice lady, and there were good movies to watch to pass the time. By the time we hit Madrid though I was anxious to get off the plane. My neck hurt and I was tired. I got off, shuffled through line with a hundred other people while my passport got stamped, and collected my baggage. I have 3 big bags plus my backpack and my computer bag. It was a nightmare trying to haul all of it until I grabbed a trolley cart. Then life got easier. To use the carts you have to put a euro in the front of them, which unlocks them from the rest of the trolleys. When you’re done using it, you return the trolley, hook it back up, and your euro pops out. They were a lifesaver.

            I pushed my trolley out of the door to a crowd of waiting people. There were people holding signs, but I didn’t see my name anywhere. I got almost to the end of the ramp before a lady (I believe her name was Luna) rushed up to me. She was there to pick me up. We caught a taxi to the train depot and she got me a ticket to Zaragoza. After explaining the ticket to me, it was all in Spanish, she helped me get another trolley and sent me on my way. The train station was crowded and my train car was full, but I got on first so I had plenty of room for all my bags. On the train they showed the movie “The Lincoln Lawyer” I was more interested in looking out the window, but I plugged my headphones in to hear…. Spanish! It was very odd to see Matthew Whatshisname but hear some other voice. I tried following along but the story seemed rather complicated and my Spanish isn’t very good.

            When the train arrived at Zaragoza I collected all of my things, piled it all on another trolley and headed up the station. Ana Lugo was there immediately to pick me up and she helped me load all of my stuff into her car. Then we were off! Zaragoza is a beautiful city! Ana showed me a lot of things as we were going, the stadium, a concert hall that is supposedly the Carnage Hall of Spain, a beautiful public park that’s only a few blocks from my apartment. She told me about the festival that is happening next week. Apparently we only have two school days next week, the rest of the week is the most important holiday for Zaragoza. There are two specific things she told me about, one is celebrating the day that Columbus sailed from Spain, the other is a day to honor the virgin; lots of people bring gifts to the virgin to thank her. It all sounds very interesting.

            My apartment is very cool. The family I’m staying with, I only know their first names, Moises, Flower, and Ester a adorable four year old who loves playing with my Where’s Waldo posters J., all seem very friendly. They don’t speak much English, but I don’t speak much Spanish, so it’s a trade off, I’m excited to learn as much as I can from them. My room is very cool, the window looks over the area in the middle of the building, which is odd but novel! The only issue I’ve had so far is that I blew a fuze when I plugged my iphone into the wall while the lights were on. I’ll have to ask how to avoid this. I hope I can charge things, I’m guessing it’s my power strip.

            Ana left me to move in and shower, telling me she’d be back in an hour to take me for food. I took a shower, noticing that there is no toilet paper here, I’ll have to get used to the water method… After my very refreshing shower, I put my clothes away. I need to get some hangers but there are so many shelves it’s amazing. I won’t have any problems storing my clothes nicely. After I put my clothes away, Moises showed me around. I’m pretty sure I saw a wifi receiver plugged into their computer, and I know I saw a box for a router, so I’ll have to ask about getting internet.

            After a while Ana called Moises to tell me to come down. She walked with me back to her apartment about 3 blocks away and I had supper with her and her husband Fernando. There was a cold tomato and veggies soup that was interesting, a keesh which was delicious, bread with a  tomato/butter spread on it that I liked, and Spanish asparagus which is very different from what I’m used to. For desert we each had a shot of espresso from the tiniest little tea cups. Fernando said it best without milk, but Ana and I each put some in. It’s a little to bitter for me to drink plain. I think I’m going to try out my Spanish tomorrow and go to the coffee shop that’s between my apartment and the school.

            After supper Fernando let me send my parents an email from his computer to let them know I was alive. Then Ana took me to the church, there were a lot of people there to meet, including both the teachers I’ll be working with. I also got to meet the youth. There were a lot of people to meet and I don’t remember many names, but everyone seemed very friendly. They were practicing a praise song that is now stuck in my head, even though I don’t know what most of the words mean. I think most of them are high school age, but some looked older, I’m not really sure. I met a guy from Malta who spoke English, and a girl named Silvia who also spoke English well. I really enjoyed sitting and listening to them sing and try to decipher what they were talking about. Eventually though I found myself nodding off. At that point I had been up for around 30 hours with only short naps on the plane. I said goodbye and walked back to the apartment. I was only planning on taking a short nap but I slept through my alarm and woke up around 2 a.m. I think I’m going to take a Nyquil and sleep some more though to get my schedule on track. Maybe the Nyquil will help with my stuffy nose too.

            I’m so excited to be here and experience everything new. I can’t wait for school on Monday to meet all the kids I’ll be working with. I want to see everything, and I guess I might just have the time too.

P.S. On the bigger sidewalks there is a smooth piece of concrete made for bikes… it’ll be perfect for long boarding on.