longest travel day ever

June 29, 2010.

i woke up at 5 am this morning ready for my 20 + hour travel day. the night before mom and i were up till 1 am doing last minute packing (sorry mom, i know i know, i should have started packing earlier). so as it was, i was tired. throughout the night i woke up countless times just afraid that i would sleep through my alarm and miss my flight. luckily i have an amazing mom and sister who woke up with me to see my off on this adventure.
we got to the airport at about 6:30 am. checked my bags, got through security (mom and steph only were able to get through because mom "booked" her and steph on a trip to portland, which of course was a decoy to get them through security. mom "cancelled her trip" right when she got home :) and then went to get breakfast. at breakfast we prayed for not only a safe flight and an awesome trip, but also that i may be a light and a witness to the people i meet. i knew this would be a challenge for me, especially in a foreign country.
we sat at my gate for a while until mom and steph decided to take off as they knew i could board the plane on my own without them having to watch me do it. :) when i hugged them i got a little teary eyed knowing that i wouldn't be in face-to-face contact with anyone else i know well for quite a while. being the brave person i try to be, i hid my tears with a smile and said bye. i turned and watched them walk away and realized that i was actually doing this alone. by myself. no turning back now.
i boarded my flight to JFK. sat down and passed out. woke up about 3 hours later to find i only had about 2 hours of my flight left until i landed in amazing NYC. i started to read this awesome book titled "pillars of the earth" which the amazing danielle schulz lent to me. good so far. :)
landed in JFK, saw the beautiful NYC skyline as i came in.
of course my connection flight was in another terminal of the airport which forced me to go through security AGAIN. i must say, its quite challenging to have a purse, a blanket, a sweatshirt and a suitcase to carry all by yourself while also having to open the suitcase right in front of a hundred people waiting behind you at security while you take out your laptop to then put in a bin and then take off your shoes and your watch, etc. i feel half naked as i tip toe through security these days because i am only wearing like half of my clothes. i am always nervous about the dirty floors and what my feet are stepping on. oh well. so far so good ;)
got to my gate, waited there for a while and stared at the empire state building. that was neat. read more of my book and then i was able to board.
once on the plane, the NYC sky was a beautiful orange/pink and blue and as the wheels touched off the ground at JFK, i stared at the sky and watched my last american sunset. at this point, there was no turning back for sure. madrid bound.
i planned on getting some good sleep on this flight. didn't happen. come to find there was a spoiled little 4 year old boy who obviously wasn't satisfied with anything his mother tried to do to make him happy. he cried for about 4 straight hours. pretty sure the entire flight was getting pretty irritated. i sat by this older man from connecticut. he was on his way to see his wife in madrid who is a lawyer for a non profit organization for the betterment of impoverished kids. he was cool, but he must have been lonely or enjoyed my company because ke kept talking to me! oh well, wasn't planning on getting sleep anyway. ;)
after sleeping a grand total of about 20 minutes, i woke up to look out my window to complete darkness and i knew we were right over the atlantic ocean. have you ever flown over a big ocean? if you have, like me, i'm sure you hope and pray that that airplane doesn't decide to have a mishap, or else you are literally screwed. though this feeling temporarily frightened me, i was concurrently amazed at how dark it was outside. though off in the distance i saw this HUGE moon which lit up the sky off to the left as the night was moving west, toward the U.S. and away from Europe. i looked to the other side of the plane knowing that on that side, the north pole was in the distance. it's neat how on one side of the plane, it is completely dark. yet the other side, there is a bit of a sunset. one question i always ask God is, "how did you come up with all this?" it blows my mind.
landed in madrid at 1 am seattle time. starting to feel tired but i gatta make my connection flight and go through customs. ok, can i just say: Madrid's airport is about the COOLEST airport i have ever seen. tops copenhagen (which pretty much contains the same amount of stores as southcenter mall has). This airport is so modern and so clean. at this point i thought to myself, "oh thats right. i'm in europe. thats why this is so modern and clean." europe is about the coolest, cleanest and most modern continent ever.
i look at the reader board to find out where my connection flight gate was at. it read, "gate JHK." i thought, "what the heck is gate JHK????" well, i kept walking knowing i would somehow figure it out. i was being led up and down escalators, around corners, into a train, then i reached customs. went through customs and found that i had to go through security AGAIN. "crap." ok, get out the laptop, take off the sweatshirt, the watch, the shoes, tip toe through security. have them check my bag where the guy definately got awkward when he saw a pair of underwear with hearts around it. hahahaha. havent seen anyone shut a bag so fast. he goes, "vale. esta bien gracias" (ok fine. its good, thank you). i laughed to myself and walked on.
of course my gate was at the farthest end of the terminal. still looking for gate "JHK." still dont know what that means. figure it out, go change into shorts and finally get there. at this point, i start looking for my roommate whom i am now rooming with, monica. she told me she had the same flight from madrid to granada, so we could meet at the gate. peeping my head around a corner while looking for her (kinda awkward, pretty sure people thought i was some crazy person trying to act like a spy or something) then met eyes with her and went and met her. totally awesome girl. from southern california. couldnt have asked for a better roomie while im here. :)
we chatted for a bit and then boarded our last flight to our final destination: granada. we both got on the plane, went to our separate seats and both CRASHED right when we sat down. we were so tired. both had long travel days and the jetlag was kicking out butts.
the flight was an hour and 10 minutes but felt like 5 minutes. suddenly we touched ground in granada and the blinding sun was killing my eyes so of course i rocked the sunglasses on the plane. the spaniards sitting next to me probably thought i was a freak. but seriously, when you already have an issue with sunlight in your eyes AND you're from seattle- give me a break. stop looking at me weird, i know i have my sunglasses on inside. whatever. ;)
got off the plane, the 97 degree heat wave hit me hard and walked inside to get my bag. "Dear Lord please please please let my bag be here. please please please." trust me, the airlines have lost my bag before, and i couldnt have it happen again, not on this trip. finally i saw my bag and felt relieved.
monica, hillary (another girl in our program who landed in granada with us) and i walked outside to find a cute little spaniard man holding a sign labeled "CEA" (cultural experiences abroad, our program name) and came running up to us. "monica? kaitlyn? hillary?" is what he said to us, looking at each one of us individually as he said our names. "ok, i thought, how does he know my name, let alone what i look like???" he runs up to us and kisses us on the cheeks and of course im like, "whoooooooooooooooooa. k back off, i dont know you." hahaha. but of course this is customary of the spanish. gatta get used to it. come to find he had pictures of us that we had sent the program months ago and he memorized our names with our faces. "ok, im pretty impressed" i thought to myself. we got in the car where Pepe, our driver loaded our bags. another cute little spaniard man that didn't speak a lick of english. tried talking to him in spanish and he kept laughing at me as i mentioned that the spain soccer team had several attractive players and that i thought Pepe was a sexy name, etc. hey, i'm in spain, im ganna say what i want. at least he got a kick out of it.
they dropped us off at our apartment RIGHT in the center of the city, gave us our bags and sent us on our way. at last, we were there.