The Journey of 3627 Miles Begins with a Single Hydraulic Failure?

As is customary at the notorious JFK International, our departure flight to Madrid was delayed. Originally this delay was only calculated at thirty minutes, a rather understandable amount, not enough to frustrate some of my fellow Domers who had actually arrived at the departure gate at the requested four hours early, nor enough to drive all the beautiful Spanish children to tears. In fact everyone was rather content. Our group was meshing very well, so much so that we are comfortable making fun of each other already—a sign of “greater things to come” as my man Chris Tomlin just sang on my itunes (God of This City on the album Hello Love…check it out). Anyhoo, our boarding went smoothly except for the part where I asked the man sitting next to me (¡en español!) if he would switch with my friend Emily. Of course, he spoke slurred Italian…not Spanish. Eventually we figured it out and he pleasantly offered his seat to Miss Matich.

So alright, seatbelts are fastened, safety videos are captivating curious eyes, and we are all set para volar (to fly). That’s when the unintelligible Spanish and mediocre English disappointed everyone on the plane…who could understand what he was saying. His words were something like, “I’m sorry, but we need everyone to disembark the plane. We’re having technical difficulties…but we’re not sure what they are, hopefully we will get this fixed.” Not too promising. On the bright side, they figured this out before we were airborne.

Eavesdropping on different flight attendants we heard the delay would be one to two more hours, because something was wrong with the hydraulic system. Oy. Thankfully ice was sufficiently broken, and the group commandeered a rather sizeable portion of floor to continue the process of making friends with former strangers. We were all humored by Gabi, who at the sound of the Captain’s voice popped a sleeping pill…much to her chagrin. She managed to keep herself pretty lucid considering the amount of downer in her bloodstream…I was impressed. All the laughter and story telling about common friends (…mostly complimentary of course:-/ ) provided a good antidote to the frustration of a delayed flight.

Eventually they boarded us, although I wasn’t so confident to get on after overhearing one of the attendants say, “We’re actually letting them on the plane?” It all worked out though. Emily and I had only one more awkward run in with our Italian gentleman and before you knew it we were praying a Rosary all sorts of intentions…but primarily for our beloved hydraulic system. I won’t lie. I fell asleep a few times during her decades. It was a strange oscillation between dreaming about fictional characters like Ronald McDonald and a concerted effort to actually pray for safety.

Well as you can guess, we did get there safe, and what’s more it was the first time I got off a plane and could actually hear normally (I started chewing gum way before our landing!). That was a nice surprise. So was the chicness of the Madrid-Barajas airport. However, it was huge, and the journey to the baggage claim and Yuki’s (our program’s coordinator) smiling face was quite a hike with my crazy big hiking backpack. Oh and before I forget I should admit, whether shamefully or with a hint of pride I know not, that I appeared to have the most weighty of luggage. I suppose I could’ve seen that coming, but it’s ok because I will definitely wear everything I brought…at least I better. My host mother, who is incredibly sweet, actually joked that I look like I’m ready to stay a whole year. Oh well :-)

I suppose this is a good time to talk about my host family. So far they’ve been nothing but sweet and awesome. They have a really cute apartment in Polígono, one of the Toledo suburbs. My room is pretty sizeable and actually has enough storage for me…which is a shocker considering. I know my mom will be very mad when I say this, but I’m already unpacked and have everything neatly organized and sorted by style, then the color spectrum. Pretty lame, but fun at the same time. I hope this doesn’t set a precedent, but it probably should considering the warzone that was my bedroom during the previous three and a half weeks. But back to my family—My host dad is actually a cook, which is fantastic as I found out at dinner tonight. He made a Spanish tortilla, i.e. eggs, potatoes and onions and this dish with tuna, green beans, tomatoes, and a hardboiled eggs—tuna and hardboiled eggs aren’t usually my thing, but I found it rather stomachable. It was just he and I at dinner tonight, but it was a good time. We talked about all sorts of things from beautiful places to see in Spain to the economic situations in our respective home countries. My ‘mom’ is great too. She made me feel welcome from the moment we met and was talking to me all day about all sorts of things: family histories, sports, and the general ways of life here in Spain. Did I mention they don’t allow smoking or drinking in the house? Ka-ching! We have a winner. The dad’s rule: Have fun outside with your friends, but if you drink here, you sleep on the stairs.

I literally just met my ‘brother.’ He’s a biology student at the University of Madrid, but he commutes, so I’ll get to spend a lot of time with him and hopefully have him teach me how to manage the city. The one drawback is that he’s a Real Madrid fan. Thankfully his parents are Barca fans so I have an early in with them. I don’t know where the sister stands on football rivalries, but I do know she’s a heck of a swimmer—she won a National Championship last year! How cool is that? Hopefully I’ll get to go to some of her meets and cheer her on.

So yea, 3627 miles is a long, long way, but so far everything has gone swimmingly. The people who have taken me in are wonderful and the people at the school seem really bright, energetic, and helpful. The funniest thing is that I do not get to escape parietals like those pesky Londoners! In the Fund’s dorms, visiting hours end at twelve! DuLac has its footprints everywhere. It’s not the biggest deal, though, because I don’t think any ND kids are living there anyway.

Alrighty, I think that’s enough story time for day 1. Pray for all of us here: my group, my family, and my profs, that we all take advantage of this semester earnestly and do our best to learn Spanish and live good Christian lives…and travel Europe and Northern Africa…ok and study a bit, too…but not too much ;-)

All my love, and even more of God’s.