July 1 – Flying Home to the USA

Thurs. July 1st

Today was the day, my very last morning in Mallorca and the beginning of my long journey back home. I woke up around 6:15 AM, got dressed, and had my last breakfast of Frosties (Frosted Flakes), water, and café. Loli was going to drive me to the airport so I had to say goodbye to Jaime, my padre, and Paca, the abuela, before I left. I hugged and kissed Paca goodbye and told her I was returning home that day. She teared up a little bit and wished me a safe journey home. Then it was time to say goodbye to Jaime. We gave each other a biiig hug and he told me that he hopes that I marry my boyfriend, have lots of babies, and have a happy life. He also told me that I should come back and visit again soon because he is almost 62 and won’t live forever. I assured him that I will definitely try to visit soon and kissed him goodbye.

The airport is only a 10-15 minute ride from their house which was pretty convenient. Loli parked in the parking garage and walked in with me. We figured out where we needed to go to check my luggage and get my 2 boarding passes. I was praying that my luggage would be under 50 lbs. or 22 kg and I wouldn’t have to pay an extra 60 Euros. When the lady placed my luggage on the counter, the scale read 25 kg = 55 lbs. I held my breath the entire time, got my 2 boarding passes, made sure the bag would go directly to Philly, and then she tagged my luggage and sent it on its merry way. After we were far enough away from the check in area, I explained to Loli that my parents would be very, very happy that I didn’t have to pay extra money for the extra weight.

Loli waited with me in the line for security as long as she could before we eventually needed to separate. We hugged and kissed goodbye and then we both started crying. I thanked her again for everything she did for me and for being the best host madre ever, and she thanked me for coming into their lives. I passed through security (and Mallorca doesn’t make you take your shoes off) and kept waving to Loli until she was out of sight. I had a flashback of the same scene happening when I said goodbye to my real mom at the beginning of this journey. I got through security around 8 AM and my flight wasn’t until 9:30 AM and would begin boarding at 9 AM. I learned that they don’t post the gate number until an hour before the scheduled time your flight leaves so I had to sit around and wait till 8:30 AM to know the gate number.

After walking to the gate and sitting around for a little while, I got in line with the rest of the people at 9 AM. Then we saw that the little sign now said that boarding would begin at 9:30 or 9:35 AM. I started getting a little worried because although I had budgeted 1.5 hours between flights, it was going to be cutting it pretty close. We finally boarded at 9:30 and took off around 9:45 AM. The whole not-sleeping-the-night-before thing started catching up with me and I pretty much slept the entire 1 hour and 20 minute flight. Before I knew it, we were landing in Madrid and it was 11 AM. My next flight started boarding at 11:40 AM. I was hoping to find some of my friends from the program that had layovers in Madrid but now had less time than expected and just focused on finding my gate.

I asked a woman on my flight in Spanish if she knew where the connecting flights were (because they were no signs), and she very sweetly walked over with me and pointed me in the right direction. I then had to stop and ask several more people because it turns out I had to get to a whole different terminal. And I was supposed to find some bus to take me but ended up walking instead. And just for the record: it is very, very difficult to run while carrying a lap top bag, a huge backpack, and running and sweating in jean pants. I went through Customs and the guy said, “Filadelfia? Queso con bistec?” which roughly translates to “Cheese steak” and I answered “¡Sí!” I then had to go through another Customs checkpoint because my passport didn’t have the right documentation. I was asked a series of questions like Who packed your bag? Are you carrying any liquids in your bag? Who has had use of your cell phone? What electrical devices are you carrying on you? and such. I patiently answered all of the questions and made it to my gate at exactly 11:40. I texted Loli to let her know that I was at my gate in Madrid, and texted my mom to let her know that I had made it too.

I slept the first 90 minutes of the flight and woke up just as they were activating our personal TV screens in front of us. I was able to watch 3 full-length movies: The Last Song, Date Night, and Alice in Wonderland. I hadn’t seen these 3 movies and thought they were all great! I also watched an episode of “How I Met Your Mother” and listened to some music CDs on the screen. I also watched the first 15 minutes of New Moon as we got ready to land. We were also fed 3 times throughout the flight. Our first meal was lunch and I had chicken and a roll of butter and water. The second snack was a bag of hard pretzels. And our third meal was a turkey and cheese sandwich. The flight was very long but the cool thing was that I was literally going back in time and it was sunny for the entire 9 hours we were in the air. Finally, it was 3 PM and we started making our descent into Philadelphia’s International Airport.

I sent out a mass text to my friends and family telling them I had just landed and was back home! I got off the plane and followed the herd of people to get to Customs. We were given a form to fill out on the plane with our information, a series of questions about bringing livestock and other food products back into the US, and an estimate of the dollar amount of souvenirs and presents we were bringing into the country. I handed my paper to the Customs guy, was asked what country I was in, for how long, what was I doing there, and what university do I go to in the US, and was then free to go onto baggage claim. My bag seemed to take forever and was one of the last ones out of the baggage chute. The most frustrating part was that my boyfriend Josh was right outside but wasn’t able to come into the baggage claim area so I had to “patiently” wait to collect my suitcase. Luckily there was a guy next to me who helped me lift my suitcase off the track and then I wheeled my bag as quickly as I could to the exit.

Josh spotted me first and he was waiting behind a low wall area. I ran up to him and threw my arms around his neck. He told me he would meet me on the other side and then I was able to give him a proper hug and kiss. He was carrying this adorable sign made out of glittery stickers that read “Welcome Home, Lauren!” and was carrying a bouquet of flowers for our 3 year anniversary. He helped me lug my stuff out to the street and we waited for my mom to bring the car around. I hugged my mom and was presented with another bouquet of flowers. (I should try this homecoming thing more often!). There was a lot of traffic on the ride home but it also gave me time to catch up and tell them all about my lovely day of traveling home.

And thus concludes my story about the time I studied abroad in Palma de Mallorca for four weeks and had the time of my life!!!

(In conclusion / Thank you / Final blog entry still to come).