Circles

Saludos desde España!

So much has happened already in the last 5 days that there's too much to share it all but I'm happy I can stop and write a about a few things. First of all, thank you again so much to everyone who has been helpful and supportive while I've been going through the crazy process of trying to pack up my life and flee to Europe. My soul needs this exploration of the unknown so I hope each of you know how much you have enriched my life and my capacity to grow by helping me get here. Each kindness reverberates out into the universe a million times over so be assured your good deeds will find their way back to you in ways you can never know or understand. (This also goes out to all of the people who have already helped in Spain and to whom I will never meet again or be able to give proper thanks).

The fact that I made it here still blows my mind. My first flight from San Francisco to New York was fine except for the fact that American Airlines provided no in-flight food on a 5 hour ride- luckily a flight attendant gave me some crackers and raisins out of sympathy. I had no idea I could pack more than just "snack" foods and now I know for next time to bring a whole lasagna. Once we landed in New York I had to rush through JFK airport to get some food and snacks not sure if I would be able to eat on the next flight -which was a few minutes delayed anyways. We finely bordered which was an absolute mess with everyone rushing since the plane had been late coming in. Once everyone was settled we sat in the plane for over an hour while the crew tried to repair some intentionally not specified "mechanical problems" and we wound up going back to the gate, un-boarding everyone and changing planes. After another hour and a half, a free meal ticket and some more delays we finely left for Spain 4 and 1/2 hours late! We arrived at the Madrid airport one hour before my connection to Bilbao, (a city very close to San Sebastian) was to depart. I apologetically talked my way to the front of the customs line, rushed through security to find my gate and realized that I had no idea where I was. There where absolutely no airport maps and I couldn't find anyone who worked there. There was an arrow pointing down that said "Puertas/Gates" so I got in the elevator and went down- to my surprise I went two floors underground to level negative 2!! Baggage Claim. Not what I wanted. I got back in the elevator and went up again.I stopped someone who told me to ask on floor Zero. Obviously confused I tried to go back down but wound up on floor -2, again. I asked two very kind gentlemen how to get to my gate and they said to go back upstairs- so I went up the stairs, not the elevator, with two bags, running just to realize that the stairs don't let out on every floor only at the top again- right back where I started. I asked someone else, ready to cry, and they told me to go back down on the escalator... So back at -2 I was when a woman who spoke both English and Spanish asked me if I was going to Barcelona. When I explained my problem she told me we had to get on the metro and that it was a 15 minute ride to our terminal. WHAT! The airport is so big we have to take a special metro just to get a cross it?! I bored the metro which was on that damn -2 floor I had been on all along and realized after arriving in my correct terminal that the arrows I thought where pointing down actually meant "go forward". I ran from one end of the VERY large terminal to the other before I finely found mi puerta and it was completely empty- no plane. No people. I had missed my flight...
I took a deep breath and walked all the way back to the center to the terminal... a very sad and exhausted walk.

My plane left without me while I was busy running around in circles.The whole rest of the trip to Spain went like that too. I had to go back and forth to 4 different desks, each of which kept telling me to go back to the previous one, in order to get a new boarding pass. A very nice and apologetic American Airlines Employee gave me a free lunch ticket and after collapsing from exhaustion I half slept in front of my new gate pleading with the universe to let me sleep but not miss my flight.I have never been quiet that tired in my entire life.