¡Ha llegado en España! (I have arrived in Spain)

Here I am in in the Barajas aeropuerto in Madrid equipped with my triple espresso at a mini internet cafe thing. The waiter guy raised an eyebrow when I ordered my espresso triple (pronounced "tree-play"), but whatever, a girl's got needs. I was crestfallen when I got to this cafe and saw that the coffee cups are about half the size of a "tall" at Starbucks, and then I remembered that small sizes in Europe are just that: small. I decided an espresso triple, which fills the entire cup, would be my best opción.

Anyway, the flight...I left LAX airport at 9:30 a.m. on the 27th and now it is 9:51 a.m., the 28th of September. Keep in mind there is a 9 hour time difference between California and Spain, but yikes. Also, I changed planes in Chicago. I was in the clear minority of Americans traveling to Spain, but it was fine. I was konked out for most of the 8 hour flight, but I did awaken to experience the deliciousness of plane food for la cena and el desayuno (dinner and breakfast). Hardy har har. Turns out the flight was delayed getting into Madrid, so I had to hawl booty to get to my gate for Seville in time. Well, the Madrid airport turns out to be the size of Rhode Island, so it took me half an hour to get to the next gate. I am not a slow walker, either -- to get from my arrival gate to the departure gate, I kid you not, I had to go through about half a dozen moving walkways, up AND down several escalators, take one elevator trip, one 5-minute TRAIN ride, go through customs, go through security AGAIN (!), and then RUN to the J gate. Once I arrived, I was just in time for última llamada, last call. However, I was informed by the guy at the counter that I could take that flight if I wanted to, but my luggage wouldn't be on it because of the delay. #@($*!(*#% So then I went to a nearby info desk and got a ticket for the next flight to Seville, leaving at noon. AHHH! Luckily, I'll get there, hopefully with my luggage. If not, I came prepared with 5 extra pairs of underwear in my carry-on and a couple extra shirts. I'm not being paranoid, either. When I arrived in Florence for my study abroad trip in January '07 my luggage didn't arrive and I was stuck with the clothes on my back for 4 days.

Today I have my first day of orientation in Seville where we'll go over a plethora of things we all need to know to live and work here. Gracias a Dios, I have an apartment already, but I'm still anxious about the whole transition process. It's a bit exhilarating, though, and I'm looking forward to meeting my housemates Becca and Michelle, who seem to be friendly if email and facebook is a reliable indication...There are 2 other girls who will be living in Cabra, Emily and Kim. Kim and Michelle are starting their second year in the same program and Emily was studying abroad here a couple semesters ago, so it's a comfort to know they loved it so much they didn't want to leave. I take it with a grain of salt, though, because 2 of those 3 girls have Spanish boyfriends.

OK well I'm going to surf the web for awhile and bask in boredom for the next two hours before I leave for Seville. I already went to the bathroom and changed clothes and attempted to look more presentable and less like the undead. Maybe I'll go into the little shop I see in my periph and pick up some Spanish reading materials. Sounds like un plan. Adiós.