Flight Fiasco

So, the beginning of this trip certainly did not follow my expectations, which is a good lesson to learn for this year since nothing since then has followed suit either!

I flew from LA to Boston with Kelsey, thinking we were off to a great, orderly start. Then we got on our 2nd flight, I popped a NyQuil hoping to sleep a bit and avoid jet-lag, and we waited to take off. And waited. And waited. After about an hour, the intercom informed us that there was a problem with the lavatories and they were almost fixed and to be patient. So I was, for about 2 more hours. Then they told us there was a separate mechanical problem with the plane and we would not be allowed to fly out. So a very groggy and dazed Danielle deplaned along with the rest of the exhausted and frustrated Europe-bound passengers. After about 2 hours at the airport, the airline officially declared the flight "cancelled" and told us to go get our luggage. Those of us from out of town waited another hour or so to figure out what to do. The airline announced that they had arranged a fleet of taxis to drive us out to a hotel in a remote suburb and we would fly out the next day, same time. They fed us dinner, a great breakfast, and lunch, the hotel was nice, and they ended up fitting all of us onto the next day´s flight. All in all, they took good care of us so nothing against the airline. However, it is not an experience I would repeat. EVER.
On the plus side, I met many interesting people going to various places in Europe, of all ages and for all reasons. I felt worse for those on vacation or who missed out on meetings/special events. However, I also met many people who are doing the same program as me all over Spain! Apparently there are almost 1500 of us in Madrid alone (the comunidad, not the actual main city) so there´s even more in the rest of the country. The main Spanish international airport is Madrid Bajaras, therefore there was a fleet of us going over this week. I met people going to the north, the south, in Madrid, and from all over the states. So, that was the silver lining!
I finally arrived in Madrid on Thursday morning, without having slept a wink at all on the plane, and ran as fast as I could with my 80 lbs of luggage for the Metro, desiring to leave the airport and all memory of the voyage over behind me for good!

Thus, my real Spanish adventures have begun. ^_^