Starting with the with my first day of travel I knew that this would be an amazing experience. After about 3 hours of sleep I got up early Saturday morning and headed off to PDX with my family. I met up with my Spanish buddy Arielle and we went through security together. That was the first time I had my hair patted down as my bun was apparently the ideal place to store potentially threatening objects. Finally we got on the plane to Philadelphia and had a pretty smooth flight. The Philly airport was an experience in itself because neither of us had been there. It’s kinda cute because they have rocking chairs you can sit in or they have stationary bikes you can use to help with jet-lag. However the more “international” section was kinda separate which made it a little confusing and we passed a lot of confused Spaniards who, like us, had no idea where to go. But, we made it and got onto this humongous glorious plane… I was in awe because I had never been on a plane this big. The flight attendants were very nice and we were served dinner which consisted of Mac n’ Cheese with broccoli, a dinner roll, a small salad, and a mocha brownie. Arielle and I were impressed. Additionally they had a good selection of movies that we could watch to pass the time. Overall it was the most comfortable flight that I have been on despite the inevitable long period of sitting and therefore lack of sleep. Needless to say once we arrived at the Barajas airport in Madrid we were a little low on energy but feeling good with excitement. We waited about 2 hours to make our connecting flight to Asturias. This flight was only a little over an hour. We arrived, got our suitcases and hopped in a taxi. All the taxis here are white and drive fast and spontaneous.

When we got to the AHA meeting place we were introduced to the coordinators/supervisors and given information packets. I turned around and my family was already there waiting for me. It was all a blur it happened so quickly. I met Maria Jose and her husband Jose whom I would be staying with until my Pepita (Maria Jose’s mom) came back and I would staying with her for the rest of the time. I also was matched up with another girl from the program, Lexi, because our hosts are friends. We all drove up to a monument, El Cristo,  which is a huge Christ that over looks the town of Oviedo…. It won’t let me post pictures right side up… :p We had our first Sidra sampling after our excursion to the Cristo.Afterwards we finally got to go home and shower. And, as Spanish culture demands, I had my first dinner in Spain at midnight 🙂