May 28-29 – Travelling to Mallorca!

Hola! Estoy en Mallorca, Spain! I figured my first blog entry should be about my flights and what my very first day was like. I’m going to apologize in advance for this (and most likely future entries) being long. But it’s really hard to not be able to talk to anyone and since I’m currently without Internet at the time that I’m writing this, I figured I’d share with you, my family and friends, reading this blog! Let’s begin!


First Flight

I left my house around 3 PM on Friday, May 28th and got to the Philadelphia International Airport around 4:15 PM (due to Memorial Day shore traffic). I went through security, kissed my parents goodbye, and was now completely on my own. My flight left promptly at 6:35 PM. The plane was really big: the left side had 2 seats, the middle section had 4 seats, and the right side had 2 seats. I had a window seat on the right.

After getting settled into my seat, I started talking to my seatmate. His name was Mario and he’s from Madrid. We talked in English and he answered a lot of my questions about life in Spain / Mallorca, such as the protocol for tipping waitresses and how late dinner begins. He then showed me how to work the individual TV’s that were placed on the back of the seat in front of us. We were able to watch movies, TV shows, and listen to music. I watched “What Happens in Vegas,” 2 episodes of “How I Met Your Mother,” and listed to some music stations/CDs. It was pretty sweet! The only downside was that when you used iPod headphones, you could only hear out of 1 ear. But we made do. I slept for about 2-3 hours too, which was good. Our dinner was either pasta or chicken and I chose pasta.

Before we knew it, they turned on the cabin lights and said that we were about 1.5 hours away from Madrid and it was time for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of a single pastry with some jelly filling. Mario, my seatmate, was pretty awesome and checked the status and gate of my connecting gate on his iPhone once we landed. My flight was supposed to land at 8:15 AM (Spain time) and my connection to Mallorca was going to leave at 9:15 AM so I was really afraid that I might not make it. Luckily for me, our flight got in early around 7:55 AM. Mario helped me navigate through customs and pointed me in the direction of where I needed to go. I thanked him and he left to go back to baggage claim.

Second Flight

I went through security in the Madrid airport, hopped on a shuttle bus, and then was at the terminal where my gate was going to be. It was a pretty surreal experience once I realized that everyone around me spoke Spanish and I was going to have to talk to the Information Desk in Spanish. I told him that he needed to print me a boarding pass and at first he got confused and was like “We’re sorry, there are no more seats. Would you like to buy one?” which definitely confused me too since he just contradicted himself. I patiently elaborated that I had already booked my seat and just needed my boarding pass. He finally understood and gave me the pass.

I was actually at the gate before our plane was. The plane was supposed to take off at 9:15 AM but we hadn’t even begun boarding at that time. They front desk where they check your boarding pass and passport was moving really slow and didn’t have everything set up. I finally boarded the plane and realized that it was really empty. The plane finally took off around 9:52 AM. I was pretty exhausted so I slept for almost the entire duration of the flight. The flight was only an hour long (very similar to flying from Pittsburgh to Philly), and we landed around 10:57 AM, although it was supposed to land at 10:30. It took a little while for them to connect the plane to the ramp but they finally did and we got off. (I was very lucky that I didn’t have a connecting flight after that or I would have been very late!)

My 2 Biggest Fears

I decided to follow the crowd of fast-walking Spaniards so that I could find the baggage claim. Now I had 2 big fears. Fear #1: My luggage wasn’t going to be there / got lost / went to Madrid / is missing. Fear #2: I wouldn’t be able to spot the Arcadia University people and find my group. Unfortunately for me, both fears ended up coming true, though they got worked out in the end.

I get to the baggage claim carousel and everyone around me finds their luggage right away and then walks away. Suddenly there’s only 3 pieces left and no more is being placed on. A married couple was standing nearby and they hadn’t gotten their suitcases yet either. I started slowly panicking and we walked over to the airline desk to ask them about it and show them our luggage receipt thing. The lady checked the info from the couple and told them that 1 of their bags was here and other was put on another flight and would be there soon. Then I gave her my tag and she said that my 1 suitcase was here. *Huge sigh of relief* Apparently because we had 1 connecting flight, it was placed on a different carousel…but no one told us that! Anyway, the woman and I walked over and found our suitcases. I nearly hugged mine as I lugged it off the conveyor belt.

So, while I was waiting at the wrong carousel for my bag, I saw 2 girls that were about my age and I asked them if they were with Arcadia. They said that they were and we introduced ourselves. They found their bags right away and went off to find our program director. I wish they had waited because I had no idea where they walked off to. So I get out of the baggage claim area and I see people with signs for tours and other things, but no Arcadia signs. Luckily, I had stored the phone number for the contact person in my phone and was able to call him, tell him where I was, and knew what color shirt to look for. Finally he found me and brought me over to the rest of the group.

There were about 6 girls sitting there when I got there. I met our housing coordinator, Alice, and was given a packet of info. We were told that we would have to wait there until they collected all of the students. A few more came after me and all of us students started chatting with each other. Alice called our home stay parents who were going to drive to the airport and pick us up. We were told that we would have orientation at 6 PM the next day and would be on our own until then. The first couple came to pick up 2 students and it was almost like watching an adoption take place. My host family was the second to arrive. Alice walked me outside to meet her in her car. She came out of the car, gave me a hug, and kissed me on both cheeks. We put all of my bags in the trunk and backseat and then drove off.