Airport musings
September 23, 2008 at 5:54 pm | Posted in One trip at a time, Real-life adventures | 1 Comment*Note* I scribbled the following notes during various layovers on the way to Spain on 9/16. I’ve been MIA this past week because I’ve been looking for apartments in Madrid, which didn’t leave much time for e-mailing friends and family to let them know I made it in one piece, let alone for blogging. Stay tuned for updates on my recent adventures…
Things you think about during 19 hours of trying to get to Spain (a peek into my neurotic brain):
~Airport in Knoxville (around 7 am): noticed the signs that said the threat of a terrorist attack was “Orange,” which is like the second –highest level. It felt like a “fly at your own risk” warning. I looked around at the other people going through security with me, and none of them looked worried, so I figured I was OK.
~Airport in Knoxville (around 7 am): tried to psych myself up to get excited for my flight, but still only felt nervous, apprehensive and hopeful that I was making the right decision. Watched my parents walk away and thought how much easier it was to say goodbye knowing that I’d be home in three months instead of nine. Still felt a little sad to be leaving my comfort zone.
~Airport in DC (around 9:30 am): Loathed the airport for not providing free wifi. (I just thought wee-fee, like in Spanish, when I wrote that. I accidentally said it the other day when I was talking to my mom, and then she couldn’t remember which pronunciation was correct.) Ever since I went to one U.S. airport (can’t remember which one) that did provide free internet, I’m spoiled for life. I could be getting ahead on my apartment search and attempting to contact my boyfriend, reassuring myself that he will be at the airport in Madrid tomorrow. But noooooo…I’m forced to write my blog post in Word and save it to be published at a later date. I’m hoping that Philadelphia was the airport I can’t remember, as I’m going there in about an hour for my next and last domestic layover.
~Airport in DC (around 10 am): recognized a US Airways flight attendant and felt like an airport “regular.” Wondered if she might recognize me like servers know their regular customers. Figured I probably hadn’t reached that level yet, but that would be cool.
~Airport in DC (around 10:30 am): planned on waiting until I got to Philadelphia around 1 pm to buy anything to eat, but got bored and cold so purchased a hot coffee and a coffee cake muffin. It wasn’t really worth it. Have a bad, burnt taste in my mouth and feel like I just ate a sugar bowl.
~Airport in DC (around 11 am): started to think about the people I met last year and looked forward to seeing who would become part of my life through this new adventure. Hoped I would have a better experience in the school where I will be working.
~Airport in DC (around 11 am): started to worry about money. Forgot to ask my parents if they would spot me for my apartment deposit. Will have to e-mail when I get there. Just hope I can make it until I get paid on Nov. 1. God, I hate borrowing money from my parents these days. But I’m thankful I have that option. I’m going to have to pick up some private English classes at least in the month of October, and I can quit when I get paid if I don’t like them. Don’t want to get stuck with too many like last year and be miserable.
~Airport in DC (around 11:15 am): I hope I get a room with a lot of light, and a balcony would be nice. I hope I like my roommates. The girl, Daniela, who responded to my e-mail yesterday about an apartment I’d like to go look at seemed nice. I hope that works out.
~Airport in DC (around 11:15 am): I’m going to see Jaime tomorrow. OK, maybe I’m getting excited now. Just a little. Thank God he’ll be there to meet me at the airport and help me with my bags…I hope he got my flight information and shows up on time instead of an hour late like me when I picked him up in Atlanta this summer. He’s a good boyfriend.
~Airport in DC (around 11:20 am): The economic crisis is the only thing they’re talking about on the news. I wonder what things will be like in the States when I return. Wonder who the new president will be. Kind of sad I’ll be missing all the hype this fall. Need to register for absentee voting. Crossing my fingers for Obama.
~Airport in Philly (around 1:30 pm): why are so many airport employees rude and/or incompetent? Drives me crazy. They’re there to do a job, and the people they’re doing that job for just get in the way and get on their nerves.
~Airport in Philly (around 3 pm): walked around everywhere looking for wifi. Found out students get it for free, and everyone gets it for free on the weekends. My student visa (with my picture and the word “student” on it) wasn’t good enough – you had to have a student ID card. ??!! I know, I know, I’m NOT a student…but if I’ve got documentation saying that I am, then what’s the problem?
~Airport in Philly (around 4 pm): walk the length of the airport to get back to my gate and think my back is going to break from the weight of my backpack. There is no cart in sight until I get to my final destination, where there are several unclaimed carts just sitting there. I’m starting to get pissed from being tired and having nothing go my way.
~Airport in Philly (around 4 pm): realize that if I weren’t traveling by myself, I wouldn’t be taking all of these things so seriously, and I need to chill out. I wish I had a traveling companion….someone to stay with my backpack when I need to go to the bathroom.
Lessons in packing
September 13, 2008 at 1:57 pm | Posted in One trip at a time | 1 CommentI’m knee-deep in the process of packing for my nearly nine-month stay in Spain. From having spent a semester in Wales and two academic years in Spain, I’ve learned that there is a fine but very important line between overpacking and packing too lightly.
When I went to Wales in 20
03, my sophomore year in college, I had never before left the country. The longest vacation I’d ever taken without my parents was for about a week. Luckily, a long-time friend was participating in the same study abroad program, and we had planned a two-week backpacking trip around southern England and Ireland to complete before the school year started. We bought eurail tickets, learned how to make them stretch for more trips than they were worth and had an adventure we would never forget.
I still remember that day when we found our hostel in London after having flown in from the states. With my two huge suitcases AND hardcore backpack, and my friend with an equally heavy load, we got our share of dirty looks and snide comments from the veteran backpackers who watched us struggling to transport our luggage from the hostel door to the storage room in the lobby. We weren’t stupid enough to think we were going to take everything we had brought for the whole semeser on our backpacking tour; we just had to get from London to our university in Wales, where we would store everything but our backpacks until we returned to start school two weeks later.
Even so, we had brought more things than we could ever hope to utilize in four months. Once the backpacking trip was over and I’d settled into my room in the student village in Wales, I didn’t even have the space to store my two suitcases. I wouldn’t have been able to make it from the train station to the place that would be my home if it hadn’t been for the help of kind Welsh strangers.
After that trip, I swore I would never overpack again. From then on, one suitcase would be all I would ever take anywhere.
Then came Spain in 2005. I was only planning on staying in Granada for a semester, but about halfway through I decided to extend m
y stay to the end of the year, as I wasn’t satisfied with the progress I’d made with my Spanish. I had improved greatly, but I had really only just begun to feel comfortable speaking and understanding. Another four months would help me solidify the foundation I had built.
That year, I did much better, packing-wise. If I got an F in Wales, I probably got a B- in Spain. With one suitcase and the hardcore backpack, I still brought too much (there was at least one drawer full of things, mostly T-shirts, I never wore), but my luggage was manageable.
When I decided to go back for another nine months in 2007, I was determined to get an A. I limited myself to ONE suitcase, however huge it may be and I strategized to pack only what I knew I would use. However, I knew I’d messed up again when, less than a quarter of the way through my time abroad, I grew sick of everything I owned but didn’t have extra money to go shopping. Having learned from the unopened drawer in my room in Spain the previous time, I had only brought ONE T-shirt. I grew to hate that T-shirt, wore my one pair of winter shoes until they became embarrassingly ratty and had to be thrown to the curb, and despised the handful of shirts and sweaters occupying my closet.
What’s more, I hadn’t packed a winter coat because it was too bulky, opting to buy a new one when cold weather came around. But cold weather came much more quickly than I had anticipated, and it took me a long time to find something I liked within my price range.
While I’ve been home this summer, I haven’t even wanted to look at any of the clothes I wore while in Spain. And as I’m packing now, although I know I have to pack many of the same sweaters and shirts or I will have no wardrobe, I resent the fact that I will be carrying around the weight of these things I loathe.
Not only was the lack of variety a result of my poor packing, but I had to pay expensive airline charges for the extra weight. It would have been smarter to have packed two smaller suitcases to distribute the weight, which is exactly my strategy for this year.
So far, I’ve decided on the clothes I want to take –selecting a wider variety to allow for more combinations–but am afraid of taking too much. As you can see by the picture, the clothes fit. But I still have to add the coat (yes, I’m taking one this year), toiletries, socks and underwear (I am a female. I have many.) shoes and scarfs (narrowing those down has been harder than the clothes.). Do you think I can do it?
I’m going for an A, so the pressure’s on.
Newfound commitment
September 10, 2008 at 4:59 pm | Posted in One trip at a time, Real-life adventures | Leave a commentTags: conociendo Madrid
This past week I haven’t written because I’ve been busy getting ready for my fast-approaching extended trip to Spain. I’ve sat down several times to attempt to post, failing miserably as my head has been in a state of disarray with plans, budgets, concerns and questions dominating my every thought.
Even today I’m forcing myself to write in the hopes that it will help me sort through the chaos and come to terms with the fact that I’m leaving in six days. Six days?
On one hand, I don’t feel ready. It sure would be nice to have another couple of weeks, or even a month, to keep working and saving for this year abroad. I’m not going to get a paycheck until Nov. 1, and I barely have enough money in savings to keep me fed and sheltered until then. If I had known I would be going back to Spain when I got home in late June, I would’ve started working earlier and made different decisions with my money. Alas, I didn’t know, and I’m just lucky the Parental Bank approved me for a small loan to help with plane tickets and my apartment deposit until I’m in a better financial situation.
On the other hand, I just started to feel ready mentally, well, today. Yesterday I bought the plane tickets I’ll need for the rest of the year – a ”multi-destination” ticket to come home for Christmas, go back to Madrid in January and come home again when my grant runs up in the summer. Having secured my travel plans for the next eight months, it’s now impossible for me to continue living in the state of noncommittal denial where I had previously been lingering. Until yesterday, whenever anyone asked me when I was leaving, I would answer vaguely, “Oh, sometime in late September.” I had bought my ticket to go back on Sept. 16 months ago, when it was cheaper to get a round-trip ticket to come home in June even though I didn’t think I would be boarding that plane in September. But I had recently been playing around with the idea of getting a new, later ticket to buy me another week here in Knoxville.
It’s not that I didn’t want to go…I just didn’t want to go quite so soon. I would’ve liked to have had more time at home, not only to work, but to soak up my family and friends.
But I’m looking forward to coming home for two weeks in December because I wasn’t here for Christmas last year. Plus, I won’t have to wait until I’m back next summer to get a haircut. (If you’ve been to Spain lately and noticed the mullets, you can understand my fear of Spanish salons.)
Having bought my plane tickets, accepted that I’m leaving and gotten my suitcases back down from the attic, my next challenge is finding an apartment in Madrid. As I’ll be competing with a multitude of other people arriving in the city around this same time for school and/or work, including a number of people from my program, I’m expecting a stressful several days. However, I’m thankful that Jaime will be visiting from Germany so I won’t be completely alone and homeless in a big, unfamiliar city.
I plan to continue updating my blog, and hopefully with more regularity, while I’m in Madrid, as blogs by Americans living abroad are some of my favorite reading material. Expect a new name and banner soon…
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