Wait...So, we have to sleep on the floor, again??

Saying goodbye to my family, my best friends (who I live with and adore), and my boyfriend (who I love to death) for five months was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Once I made it through the 9 hour flight to London full of screaming babies and 3 glasses of wine (gratis) I thought that catching connecting flights to Madrid, Jerez, and finally Cádiz would be cake.

Wrong.

A group of 11 of us took the British Airways flight together to Heathrow. We flew out of Seattle at 7 pm, and arrived in London the next day at noon (due to the 8 hour time difference). All of us were extremely jet lagged and completely ready to catch our connecting flight to Madrid, which was supposed to leave at 2:30. This is where the disaster of 3 days of travel on 4 hours of sleep began.

We quickly got off the plain at Heathrow and made our way to our gate. If you’ve never been to Heathrow, it is roughly the size of the city of Seattle. We had to take a 10 minute bus ride to get to our terminal and catch our connecting flight, which gave us plenty of time to make fun of how British people drive on the wrong side of the road, and say things like ‘wanker” and “cheerio” (which they do, I heard both). Up until actually going to the UK, I kind of always though British people were imaginary. They’re accents were so cute, I’ve seen lots of them on TV, and even if they were cussing you out it would still be impossible to get pissed at someone who calls you a silly ninny. Anyway, we finally got to our gate and tried to relax before boarding our next flight. Flying makes me really REALLY thrirsty, which is really unfortunate in Europe, because apparently they don’t believe in water fountains. At every airport they have tons of Duty Frees, random liquor stores and wine shops, but they don’t sell water for less than your first born. I decided to run to the bathroom to fill my water bottle up, since they kept throwing my water bottles away at security I didn’t want to buy another one. I started to fill it up in the sink and the cleaning lady who was mopping my feet told me to move over, so I went to the other sink. It took me roughly 36 minutes to fill my little 16 ounce bottle, since the faucet was motion censored I kept having to move the bottle in and out and line it up perfectly with a 2 second stream of water. I was just about to quench my thirst when the cleaning lady screamed “YOU can’t DRINK DAT! What are you tinking??” Well, I’m tinking that there are no fucking water fountains in this country and I don’t want to spend 20 pounds for a bottle, so I’m going to drink this luke-warm free water, thank you. Yum. “Dat water no is for drinking! Es for wash your hands!’ “Oh, really?” I say, sounding surprised, like this woman had just enlightened me, because I don’t know what else to say, and I really don’t know why I’m talking back in the first place. “YES! Where you from anyway?” Fuck fuck fuck fuck I panic and say “America.” She looks back at me and says, “MMMMMHMMMMM!” God damnit, I’ve been out of the country for like an hour and I’m already making an ass out of myself. And I’m not even in Spain yet, I’m in LONDON, THEY SPEAK ENGLISH THERE. I was thirsty, and we can do things like drink tap water in America. I should’ve said I was from Canada. Whatever.

So I go back to the gate to sit down. After about an hour all of us realize that we haven’t seen anyone up at the desk of the gate, which is odd because we were supposed to board the plane fairly soon. 3 of the girls in our group had tickets for a plane that was supposed to leave an hour after ours, so they were checking their baggage. A few minutes later they come back to our gate to inform us that their flight has been cancelled, because the entire Madrid airport is shut down.

We are screwed.

The following events quickly turn into a blur. We had to go find someone to confirm that the Madrid airport was shut down because if it snows in Madrid, or Spain for that matter, the country riots, and airports completely shut down without telling a single person what the hell is going on. Next we had to go collect our baggage, which was supposed to be checked all the way through to Madrid. Keep in mind we’re all supposed to be in Cadiz for 5 months, so I have a shitload of bags, and I packed light. For the next 5 hours, we dragged our asses around all 4 billion square miles of Heathrow, trying to get our flights changed. The group quickly dwindled down to 8 people, who all managed to get onto a flight for 8 the next morning. This either meant that we would have to get a hotel for the night, or sleep in Heathrow. When we asked the manager at British Airways if he would put us up for the night he laughed. HE LAUGHED. We didn’t think it was that funny, and we didn’t think that we should have to pay 50 pounds to sleep in a bed for less than 6 hours.

Well, we did.

Trust me, we attempted to avoid spending that money. From about 6 til 10 pm, our group wandered around, looking for corners or nooks to sleep in. We would then pile up our baggage awkwardly and try and sleep on top of it, but considering that we had all of our shit with us it became comparible to sleeping big uncomfortable boulders. Plus, wherever we went, after finally getting settled, someone would come in and tell us we couldn’t sleep there. I think we were tarninshing Heathrow’s reputation by trying to sleep in public. That’s for bums. On one had we did look a lot like homeless people, but on the other hand we hadn’t slept in like 30 hours, so a bench in a café looks like a California King size bed.

In the end, 10 at night, Marisa, Samantha, Ben and I gave in and got a hotel. Well, the bus ride there was free, so we got that goin for us... We immediately passed out once we hit our beds, but due to the time difference found ourselves waking up every hour convinced that it was the next day and we missed our flight. It also didn’t help that we didn’t have a clock in our room (I know, what the fuck right?). I got 4 hours of sleep. Better than zero I guess.

Fortunately we did catch our flight in the morning, and got into Madrid at around 11. The plan was to then catch a flight to Jerez de la Frontera at 4 because it’s the closest airport to Cádiz. The only problem here (actually there was more than one problem) was that no one speaks English in Madrid, clearly, and no one has cute little British accents. They have crazy accents that are near impossible to understand. If you are from Madrid or Barcelona, many of the c’s and s’s turn into “THS” (like a lisp) if they’re follwed by a certain vowel, and people from the Cadiz area completely drop s’s out of the middle and ends of verbs, so the 7 years of Spanish I’ve taken quickly becomes kind of useless. Shit. So, we’re looking at the board trying to figure out what gate or flight is on, but it isn’t listed. This is bad, this means we actually have to try and speak Spanish already, on zero sleep. I ask a man at information if he knows anything about the Iberia flight 158 (apparently he understood, amazing) and he said some crazy shit back to me. I got the words “I don’t know” and “probably won’t know until 5”. Well that’s funny, because our flight leaves at 4… hmm. Whatever. So we found a spot on the cold marble floor (Spain believes a little bit more in water fountains, but they don’t believe in carpet) that was close to the flight board. We wait here. And wait. And wait. Finally we see that our flight has been delayed until 6, but there’s no gate listed. At this point it’s 4, then 4:30, then 5, still no gate. We run into some more of the people from our group who got separated and they tell us where one of the gates is that the Jerez flights have been going out of. We go there. At this point, walking is extremely difficult. None of us have eaten anything but the little tiny meals on our flights, and have had barely any water because apparently if you drink the tap water you will die. After 3 gate changes we got to our final gate, but there was no information about the time when we would be taking off. I was not going to sleep on the floor again, and this time be laughed at in Spanish and have no idea what people were saying about me. Rachel and I dedided to try and find some food and coffee. As we were leaving the café, we saw a flight board right outside of the café, and Rachel looks at me and says, “We’re boarding?” Of course, because that would only make sense based on our trip thus far. We sprint back to our gate and are literally just in time to make the flight. I’m still confused.

We landed in Jerez at about 9:30, but we still need to get to Cadiz, which is another 45 minute drive. We all have to take taxis, 3 or 4 to a car, which ends up being about 20 euros per person. I attempt to talk to our taxi driver, to try and warm up my Spanish a little bit. I guess it worked, because he seemed to understand me. When we arrived in Cadiz, I was kind of blown away. Partly because the city is so beautiful, but it is also very compact, and at this point I’m extremely tired so I don’t really know what to think. It’s also freezing butt ass cold. GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL. Ben and I, who live in the same building, somehow find our houses. Since Cadiz is over 3 thousand years old, they preserve the old part of the city by not really building anything, so all of the buildings are built up higher. We walk into our building at around 11, and we honestly don’t know if it’s the right place. Thankfully, Ben’s host dad, Pepe, sees us and says “TATATA TATA TA TA ESTUDIANTES? TATATATATA” or something. Sí sí sí somos estudiantes! We made it. Our family came and brought us into our houses, and we were finally left alone to fend for ourselves with people who we cannot understand at all. I still have barely any idea what anyone says around here, but I’m hoping I will start to understand soon. Until then, I will walk around with a smile on my face that says “I’m American and nice! But I have no idea what the fuck you are saying to me! Yeah! ☺ “

Today, I woke up at 12. I definitely could have slept for longer, but I felt bad and lazy, So I woke up. Oh my god, you would not believe how much food the people try and make you eat here. My host mom is a great cook, but my stomach is only so big. Last night, I’m not kidding, the second I walked in the door she grabbed my hand “Venga venga!” C’mon let’s go! I was sat down at the table and she asked me “tienes hambre?” Hell yeah I’m hungry! She brought out a bowl of soup and I’m thinking yes, food, this is perfect. Through bites I tried to answer questions that I didn’t really understand in my broken Spanish. I was almost done with my soup and trying to talk to my host Dad, Neno, when Francisca brought me arroz, like a paella, with seafood (Cadiz is surrounded by ocean, lots of fresh seafood). She wasn’t done. Pan (bread), Carne (pork), and some vegitable thingie. Holy shit, I thought I was good with the soup. Everything is delicious but my stomach is not that big. The only reason people aren’t fat here is because you walk EVERYWHERE. I went to bed full for the first time in 3 days.

So this morning, I had my café con leche a las 12, and my host mom made me eat some dulces which is fine but I’m still full from last night. Next, I got to shower finally. The downside is that water is really expensive and we can only take like 5 minute showers. I have a problem with this. I obviously will have to learn to adjust, as well as learn how to shave my legs in 30 seconds. Shit.

Next, we went out to walk around the city, and my host parents tried to teach me some things. I listened, but I didn’t learn much, because I can’t understand them. We had some more food in el centro, and cervesitas (little glasses of beer) and walked around some more. The problem was they kept running into people and I would have to introduce myself and make an ass out of myself in front of more people. At around 3 we walked to get some tapas and cervesas, and the food is so good but I’m telling you, my stomach is not that big. After we eat, we walk home to sleep. Spain is awesome. I just need to learn how to talk to people.

Ben and Marisa and I all live really close, which is nice. We found the internet today! There is free WiFi in la Plaza de Palilleros, about 5 or 10 minutes from my house. Thank god.