"It's this animal that goes 'Bahahah- bahaha": Welcome to Vigo

View from on top of the Parque do Castro, looking out onto the Ría

¡Bienvenidos!

For all of you who want to know just how great my life has been/ is going to be while I'm in Spain, I've decided to gift you with my eloquent, descriptive narrative about my travels and my edgy, awe-inspiring photos.  Enjoy.

So hopefully, this will help appease those of you who are freaking out because I'm not calling (bahaha), entertain those of you who are genuinely interested, and not annoy the hell out of those of you who hate be subjected to the minutiae of their friends' study abroad experiences.

So from the beginning: The Plane Ride

After being thoroughly convinced that it was absolutely necessary to get to the airport four hours before my flight left, I flew through security and ended up waiting at my terminal for a few hours.... great fun. I had my last American meal at the McDonald's in O'Hare and payed six doll hairs for a few minutes of Wi-Fi (to be pronounced "wee-fee" from now on and forever).  And then a seven flight over the Atlantic (I had two airline meals, watched "Acero Puro," and slept not even two seconds) and landed in Barajas airport, Madrid.  They make us go through Security again entering the country and DEAR LORD!! First, it simply takes forever. Second, there are people that are just bolting through the metal detectors when the guards aren't looking (and who so frequently ignored when the detectors went off).  No bueno.  So I make it into the main terminal (which is really like a decent size mall), and I take a seat just in time to watch the sun come up over the mountains of Madrid.... And on the little flight to Vigo, I'm seated next to a group of Russians who know not a word of English, and barely any Spanish.  Given that my Russian vocabulary has atrophied over the years, there was a lot of pantomiming (amazingly enough, I couldn't find a way to fit "Vot eta da, von utka!" into the conversation......). And then we finally land in Vigo. I grab my bag and check with Customs (it was a super-tired looking guy who asked "Do you have any food in your bag?") before being let out into the Spanish world.  Also, I ended reading a book on my flights that was so good! (Amazon thinks it knows me so well and tries to recommend me these really awful books, but this one was really incredible- check it out: The Vast Fields of Ordinary.) In any case, I found out two things:  1) that I would rather stop reading a book about three-quarters of the way through; you know, that point when everything's going just right and you feel good about life, because you know that somehow, things are going to get all effed up, and 2) I fall in love with fictional characters.  Seriously, any Alex Kincaids out there, lemme know. So I finish the book sitting in Barajas and I get so upset- I start crying in the middle of the terminal (the last time I cried reading a book was when Hedwig died...).

Vigo at last

So waiting for me at the airport are two lovely Spanish women- Andrea and Elena.

So all of a sudden, I kind of realize, "hey, I'm in Spain!" So I start getting really nervous/excited. We start rolling through the streets of Vigo - and let me tell one thing: HOLY CRAP - these people are OUT OF THEIR MINDS!!! I've been in the car with a few Spaniards and some taxis - it's no good.  Even the buses here are insane.  My personal sentiments on the bus system here: The knight bus.  One more note: I've already spent a small fortune on bus fares here... I'll get my student pass by Thursday though!  But I digress... Andrea and I were talking and she was already teaching me some Galician!! But I found out, when I get really nervous, my mouth gets super dry, and then I can't roll my rr's ... she was making fun of me :(  But then she was trying to describe to me what a cabra was ("It's this animal that makes the sound 'bahah-bahah'). (Side note: it's so weird, the words they think you don't know, but then they start using these either really obscure, idiomatic terms or they start telling a story and think you'll understand every word...) But I love them all the same, and Andrea's been really great helping me get around and teaching me Spanish things!

So we make it to my hotel finally (it's been 36 hours or something stoopid since I'd slept...) and check in at the Hotel Náutico, which is right off of the Ría.

So I drop my stuff off at the room (which was just big enough for the bed) and go wandering around the streets, looking for something to eat.  I stumbled into a café just down the street.  Still kind of freaking out from being in Spain, I go up to the camarera and say "hey, I just got here like an hour ago. I don't know what's going on, but can you get me something to eat?" And the look on this lady's face was so great- I'm not sure if it was pity or she just didn't want to outright laugh in my face...And she asks me how hungry I am and I say "starving." So she brings me the best coffee I've ever had, and then she brings me these tostadas with a cream cheese and salmon on them - let me tell you: You have never really eaten if you haven't eaten here.  SO GOOD! And then she brings me a dish of rice and chicken and beef in this sauce...I don't know what it was, but holy hell... And what's better, she was talking to me a little bit and said she thought my Spanish was really good :D  (Really, I was just overjoyed that I was able to communicate.) But it was a lot easier than I thought it would've been - and already, I feel like my Spanish is getting a lot better.  In any case, I make my way back to my little room and finally get to sleep.  At 4 in the afternoon.  Jet lag blows.

So that's my first day in Spain.  I've had so many adventures since then, so more to come very soon.

Besos

One of the many strange statues of the city... and also how jet lag feels.