So I have arrived in Sevilla Spain! It is going to be different we have already had problems communicating my friend Sarah and I just got back from lunch after arriving in Seville and we meant to order two of the same thing but apparently communicated to our waiter that we wanted one to split between the two of us. When we arrived in Madrid this morning the metropolitan set up is very similar to that of downtown Dallas, at least while jet lagged and at 7 am Spain time. I am not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't this. I guess I just imagined a whole bunch of Texas Tech buildings all over the place, for those of you who have never had the pleasure of visiting west Texas all the building have a Spanish influence.
My trip started at 9 am Friday morning in the DFW airport then to JFK. IT was pleasant and uneventful, and we actually arrived about 20 minutes earlier than scheduled. Before the flight we met another Tech student also heading to Seville. Once we landed in JFK about 3:30 eastern time we enjoyed a nice lunch at the Soho Bistro and awaited our flight at 5:25 (eastern) to Madrid. When landing at JFK we were welcomed by snow, which is very exciting for someone from Texas. Sarah and I didin't have seats together (originally) for this 7 hour flight but luckily we talked or way into not only two seats together but first row behind first class and extra leg room! :)
After a long flight with practically no sleep we wandered through the Madrid airport, which was confusing up, down, left, right and escalators with no steps (weird!) just moving ramps. I walked up to the customs man with my passport and he says "Hola" and I reply "Hola" with a Texas twang. He then said "Que tal?" I in a panic, because I remember little if any spanish from high school, reply "no hablo espanol se un poquito. He then dismissed me with the stamp of my passport. Come to find out he was reading the newspaper the whole time. As we continued to wind our way through the airport following the sing for baggage we eventually hopped on and off a train to an open baggage area. After claiming the baggage we found a taxi, I decided not to attempt pronunciations, so as a recommendation from the Spain advisor we wrote the place we needed on a piece of paper and handed it to the driver and headed off.
A short and quiet way to the train station we arrived two hours before our scheduled departure, from Madrid to Sevilla. While waiting Sarah, Zach and I and all our luggage camped out for the time being. While waiting two Tech students, identifiable by the double T baseball hat, stopped and chatted for a while. At about 9:45 Sarah and I boarded the high speed train to Sevilla. On the train we explored Spain and Sevilla eye witness travel books, compliments of the Malhotras and Kelsi Heinrich. After the 2 1/2 hr. train ride we arrived in Sevilla where we crammed into a taxi with our luggage and arrived at our temporary destination until our host family comes and picks us up on Monday.
This is definitely going to be an adjustment, I have already found it difficult to communicate. I have faith it will get better!
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