These boots WEREN'T made for walkin' ... but that's just what they had to do!

Estimados a todos!

Greetings from Spain! The weather here is moderate -- upper 40s, but quite rainy/damp. The town in which I'm living, se llame (is called) Alcala de Henares is very quaint for being a large town. It is very safe here and the people are all quite friendly. The streets are made of stone and the buildings are the same color, large trees and street lamps line the sidewalks and foot traffic is more popular than los coches (the cars). Okay, that's the good stuff ... now here's the truth:

i live in a shoebox! for the rent my family is paying (appx equivilant to an apartment in college park) I assumed I was getting an apartment, but really I got a glorified dorm room! I will upload pics just as soon as ... well here comes the next story:

Let me tell you how I ended up in Madrid, I'll keep it on east coast time, but with spain time in parentheses:

SATURDAY
4:30 PM (10:30 pM) depart Boston Logan Airport for Madrid via Lufthansa Airlines. The service on the plane was excellent, hot towels, warm blankets, individual tv's free wine/beer with dinner -- BUT NO LEG ROOM! southwest has about 4 more inches of leg room and I think we all know my giant legs don't exactly fit comfortably in tight spaces. So for me it was impossible to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. They also served us a light breakfast before we landed.

SUNDAY
12:30 AM (6:30 AM) Land in Frankfurt Germany. Snow is softly falling out the window, no real accumulation but looks beautiful. My next flight is scheduled to take off at 9:10, but due to snow has been pushed back to 9:30. My group has not yet arrived, and it keeps getting later and later and later, so i buy the internet to check their flight status and see they are late getting into Frankfurt. I assumed I'd have to hold the plane for them (8 people were jioning me who flew in from DC) because they also had to travel thru customs and again thru security before boarding, and their plane landed at 8:45.

3:10 AM (9:10 AM) my friends arrive, with 20 minutes to spare, plenty of time. We are all exhausted but none of us wants to sleep. We do the introductions etc, plane is announced that it is delayed until 10AM. Then 20 minutes later the man announces "Due to snow, no planes are arriving or landing in the airport... literally there was 1/2 inch of snow. I have no options for you, perhaps except to get a voucher and go home and book for another time." So of course, I go up to the counter and say HELLO WE CANNOT JUST GO HOME WE ARE FROM AMERICA! you have to have another option". he says "Lady, I am sorry, we have no plane to put you on, all planes have been diverted to other airports." my theory, if you wanted to know, is that there was a security issue but in Germany they choose not to alert the public of that, because really there wasn't enugh snow to even make BWI stop sending out planes, and the streets, which we could see from the window of the airport, as well as the runway, were perfectly clear of snow. I say I want to speak to a manager and get on the next flight out to madrid, he says I have to go to a rebooking window only.

4:00 AM (10:00 AM)
We run as fast as we can to the rebooking window in an attempt to beat out all the other people also heading that a way. We end up being about 300th in line. Literally all Lufthansa flights were cancelled. Frankfurt is their hub and there must have been at least 25 Lufthansa flights going out around our time to different countries. The line was about 200 yards long ... probably a good thousand people and ONLY FOUR REBOOKING AGENTS AT THE COUNTER. we stood in line for FIVE AND A HALF HOURS thereby missing the earlier flights that left for madrid.

9:30 AM (3:30 PM) we finally get to the front of the line, after having stood/sat/squatted on our heels/attempted to sleep standing up/learned some german/learned we now hated the sound of german/thought about screwing it all and going to drink some german beer and dealing with the plane issue later/made friends with a father daughter duo from Arizona also trying to get to Madrid/learned to hate teh gold star members who got their own line which moved much more quickly/and realized that as nice as the lufthansa people were, they were SLOW AS MOLASSES. they spent about 20 minutes per customer because most customers needed to take overnight trains to get to their destinations and lufthansa had to look it all up and book it for them, one by one. Anyway, the woman put us on a 5:55 flight.

11:55 AM (5:55 PM)
after grabbing a quick bite -- we hadn't eaten since breakfast at 5:00 AM on our first plane, we went to the gate, which was then changed, so we went to the new gate, which was changed back to the old gate, so we went to the other gate, boarded a bus to take us to the new gate ... again ... and finally got on our plane. After having heard german for about 12 hours, we were actually relieved to hear the flight attendants speaking spanish, something we knew better than german -- it was the first time in my life i was relieved to hear that language!

2:30 PM (8:30 PM) we land in Madrid. We head to baggage claim. thought it was great that the carts used to push your luggage were free here, and didn't cost money like in the US. We all get carts. None of us gets luggage. We waited and waited and waited but none of our luggage went around that conveyor belt. We then speak to an agent, in Spanish of course, and she takes us to a lost luggage area where we file claims and are told they will be delivered in about 24 hours.

4:30 PM (10:30 PM) we boarded a bus with our Resident Director, Mercedes, and head out for a very late dinner of traditional paella, chicken, and a dessert similar to creme brulee.

7:00 PM (1:00 AM) we've now been traveling for a full 24 hours, but have been awake for about 32, we smell, we're sweaty, tired, grouchy, and go right to sleep at our hotel around 1:00 am spain time when we return from dinner.

AND I HAVE DONE ALL OF THIS IN MY HIGH HEELED SUEDE BOOTS which were a great chirstmas gift from my aunt. I thought i'd wear them on the plane so I looked more European and less like a tourist when I arrived ... but now they are getting to be quite a hassle, and I will be SO happy when I get my sneakers! high heeled suede boots are not exactly what you want to trek 2 miles in the rain to the grocery store wearing! needless to say, my boots and I have bonded quite well.

It's now Wednesday, we've done some great touring in Madrid (seven more hours of walking in my boots) have attempted to get settled as best we can without our clothing, found a store to buy some frozen meals that can tie us over until we buy cell phones so we can call cabs (we have to walk 2 miles back from the grocery store so we can only buy light things that we can carry ... we intend to do more thorough shopping once we know how to call for a cab). And have found a hospital across the street with a decent cafeteria where we've been eating our dinners.

The people on the trip are all really great and we've all been screwed over together which is comforting in it's own little way. We are still having fun, last night we went to a bar, we are learning our way around Alcala and we really love the area. Our luggage is due to come in tomororw, so keep your fingers crossed!!

Next time i'll write less, share pictures, and be more positive! pray I score well on my placement test tomorrow!
Love,
Deanna