I'm here... holy cow.

ok. i'm in spain. i'm sitting on a park bench somewhere because i've just spent the last 3 hours looking for someplace with wifi. i found a starbucks a million miles from my bus stop and bought a drink. sat down and their internet was broken! are you kidding me???
i miss aaron and i haven't seen caitlin since she got on the flight without me and katie. i miss her.

i've decided that since i can't get on the internet at the house, i'll just blog in an open word file and then copy/paste when i get to someplace with internet... here is what i have so far.
thank you for your prayers. i love you.

~db

Madrid, Spain

La Casa de Santibanez

9:30pm (2:30pm Denton time)

Ok well I’m finally in Madrid! Could that have been any more stressful??

Friday: we get to the airport about 1030am and find out that the flight has filled up since the weather has been bad for Atlanta lately. Everyone and their moms were all trying to get to Atlanta. Caitlin and her mom got on the flight. Katie and I had to wait for another flight. We waited at the airport for the next 7 flights and got bumped from every single one… we had katie’s old roomie pick us up and take us back to denton to sleep for a few hours and go back to the airport at 5:15 Saturday morning.

Saturday: 515 we go the airport again and pray that we actually do get on the first flight available since they CANCELED every flight from dallas to Atlanta after noon on sat. there are a TON of people waiting to fly standby on the flight. Most of them flight attendants or pilots. All but three people on the list are above us in rank… so… we are at the bottom of the list…but we got on!!!!! Man. We just about cried!!! So happy.

We get to Atlanta around 10am their time, so our next job is to sit around and wait until our Madrid flight that didn’t leave until 655pm from Atlanta. It’s not a sure thing that it’s leaving at all, since Atlanta had a wonderful blizzard all day… perfect… so our fingers are crossed, and we are SO sick of being in airports.

We find out there is no way we won’t be able to be on the flight and we make phone calls and texts before we get on the plane bc there’s no more cell phone after we leave for Madrid! I hate that…

We get on the plane, and find out that we’re in FIRST CLASS! HOLLA!!! J it was so awesome! I never wanna ride anything but first class again! Haha. Yeah right.

The chairs are big, there is a personal tv that pops out of the arm rest of your chair, and when they serve dinner and breakfast, you get a tablecloth, real dishes, and awesome food (multiple courses! I couldn’t even have all of the courses I was so full!). oh you also get a pack of stuff that has toothbrush/paste, socks, earplugs, eye cover, lotion, chapstick… lots of stuff! So great! J

Well, we had to sit in the plane for an hour and a half before taking off because there was ice on the wings and we were 12^th in line to get de-iced…

But… after all of that… I’m in Madrid!!!

When we got to the airport and got through customs, katie’s host dad had a paper with her name on it and we found him rather quickly. That was awesome. My host mom, however, didn’t even know what I looked like and did not have a sign… I made a few rounds around the airport looking for any woman who looked like she was looking for someone…. Finally I just walked up to this lady and asked her if she was Paloma… and it was! Praise Jesus! Ugh. Stress… seriously… uncalled for. ;)

I hate not having a phone. I hate even more not having internet. I have no contact when I’m at the house… it sucks. I can’t wait to get to an internet café tomorrow. Seriously.

I hate not hearing Aaron’s ringtone. It’s silly, but that’s one of the first things that I missed… I just wish i could hear it anytime in the next three months…

I’m exhausted. Paloma (my host mom) said that I should stay up as late as I possibly can just so that I’m not super thrown off by jet lag… she had me take a nap this afternoon, so I did for about 2 hours or so. I could have slept the whole day. My eyes are about to close on their own right now. So I’m just sitting at my desk in my room with no internet, writing a blog that I will post when I next have a chance… I hope tomorrow.

The children are amazing. I’m in love with them! J

The daughter, veronica, is 12 and we hung out a lot today. Also she’s studying “religion” in school so I hope that brings a lot of opportunity for talking about Christ with her. She’s studying for an exam over the stories of Abraham and Isaac and Moses and Egypt right now. So cool.

Eduardo (a SUPER common name here in spain! I’ve already met 4 of them! Haha) is SO cute. He’s 11, and super adorable. He’s gonna be a handful, but he is SO sweet. They both are. i gave them both a book from the states, and they were SO grateful! I’m so excited that I get to hang with each of them one on one every day. We have a schedule for studying every day. It’ll be rigid, but it’s good. J

I’m meeting Katie downtown tomorrow at noon. That will be fun. My first bus ride by myself! Ah! J I don’t even have any euros… hmmm… I wonder how that’s gonna work… ha.

I’m, so far, extremely disappointed with the food. We had turkey (that thick fake looking stuff that mom used to make, lynn?) with French fries and some egg thing that was really good but I have no idea what it was. Haha just didn’t seem very healthy… I hope not everything is fried… ugh. I’m gonna get huge L and feel disgusting. Arg.

I’m seriously about to fall over I’m so tired… I think I’m going to go to bed anyways. I don’t think I’ll have a problem sleeping for 12 hours… I really don’t…

I wish Aaron was here… there are just some things that are a million times cooler when your best friend is with you…

Speaking of best friends… I miss Linds, and I hope I get to see Cait soon! I haven’t seen her since we first got to the airport on Friday!!!

Madrid, Spain

La Casa de Santibanez

4:47am (9:47pm Denton time)

It’s 4:30am. 9:30 where you are.

I’m wide awake and an ocean away from anything to do with you.

Except me.

And you’re everything to do with me.

~db

I definitely didn’t think that I’d have a hard time sleeping until morning… I mean real morning when people are supposed to be awake… I guess I was wrong.

The smells are different here. Also the sounds. Little sound differences. Like, for example, I’m so used to the soft background sound of the gentle blowing of central heating/air… Here, there is just this metal thing on the wall that gets hot… no blowing heat. I wonder how they do air… open the windows, I suppose? Hmm. Also there is no ceiling fan in my room. This is terrible for two reasons. Number one: the sound is another soothing sound that I have hardly ever slept without. Number two: the air is very still in here and I think that’s the biggest reason I’m not able to go back to sleep right now. I need some air blowing on me… growing up I used to have my ceiling fan plus another little fan next to my bed for the noise, but also for the air blowing at my face (I know, terrible idea for a singer’s voice, but whatev).

That’s all that’s in me right now. Maybe I’ll watch a movie or maybe an episode or two of the office? I dunno. I wish I had the internet. Bah.

Tengo hambre.

I’m hungry.