Trip to Madrid- The shit job that was I

Sitting at the airport waiting for boarding seemed surreal. All summer I had been waiting for the day when I would be doing my travel to Spain.

I didn’t even start thinking of packing until the day before I left. I knew that I had to do something because how else would I get things to Spain. So I decided to go shopping. I went shopping for new shirts, boxers, and for the first time I set a budget. Who can guess how that went? Yeah, I went over. But just by a little bit! I had to buy a new camera to capture my trip abroad. So sue me.

Of course, like any good Latino male, I waited to ‘til that morning to pack. I sat looking at the clothes and I just wanted to sleep. I didn’t the night before. So instead of doing either, I went shopping—again. I had to buy a gift for my “host mom.” I went to buy books from Borders; I decided to buy her a book of Chicago’s architecture, cheap and easy. And like a good bullshitter, I gave her this meaning “I’m here to see your majestic city, and I would like you to see mine.” –I don’t think she bought it; but everyone I said it to loved it.

My sister dropped me off at the airport; she gave me a lecture, cried and dropped my ass off. She was gone before I was able to get all of my shit out of her car. Then this is when I realized that I would have a difficult time traveling. I had lug a huge book bag, my book bag, a roller and my laptop bag. I always pack lightly. This would also be a curse in the near future.

At the airport I met up with the group. I saw Evelyn (Poppet) and Analy. We went through security and on our way to getting lost in the terminal. When we finally got to gate 19G we met a German girl that was traveling from San Francisco to Munich, Germany. She had been traveling the U.S. for 2 months and had run out of money and time. She had an awesome story of traveling through the U.S. and sleeping in the Grand Canyon.

They began to board the plane. They started of with the last rows; guess who was the first to board? That’s right, U of I students and Madison. I did my last text messages under my 773-319-7606 number (I canceled my plan). Then we started to taxi the runway. This is when I revert to my early childhood stage of shitting my pants. The words of my mother start ringing in my head. NEVER travel by yourself; and never travel on a Tuesday (superstition says you’ll die). I was doing both. The greatest thing I could think of while taking off was that “great: I’m flying on a Tuesday and here starts our 8 hour flight to another continent, FME (Fuck My Existence).”

To recap, I was flying Iberia Flight 6538 non-stop to Madrid. Flying from O’Hare International 4:30 pm to Barajas International at 7:30 am. It’s a 7 hrs time difference. That equates to almost 24hrs of no sleeping for me. The best thing is that once in Madrid we had a 4-hour layover. But I have to say; the Airport at Madrid is really architecturally beautiful! The first European experiences were great. From flying across the Atlantic seeing the Big Dipper up-close to realizing we were flying over the Spanish countryside right when the sun was coming up was a great way to say WELCOME U of I to Europe!