Now, 'brutality' is a bit strong. But it is true that I am putting a great deal of trust in people that I have never met before. Thankfully, I have met some wonderful people; the Lord has truly blessed me beyond measure. It's also true that I am unbalanced (although I am feeling quite confident in the metro lines, I still rarely know which exit to use); however, I am grounded in faith that the Lord has gone before me. The eternal is mine.
Alright, enough with the quote that many of you read the first time I traveled abroad. What's happening with my life?!? Here are some updates...
Traveling.
Nanny drove me to the airport... no wait... I drove Nanny and I to the Harrisburg airport in Nanny's car around noon. (This will be important later.) I checked my luggage in and almost gave the lady a heart attack when I told her my bag was overweight. Looking to quickly remedy the situation, she asked, "Well how much? A few pounds?" She was definitely thinking that I could rearrange the stuff in between my suitcases and evade paying the overweight fee. "I don't even want to tell you how much it will cost..." Little did she know that I had done my research and found out it was $150 for an overweight bag that weighed 50-75 pounds and $175 for an overweight bag that weighed 75-100 pounds. Thus, I put all of my heavy objects in my human-sized rolling duffle and ended up having one bag weight 94 pounds and another at just 49. Hey! I was packing for a year!
Anyway, after paying my fees and leaving her to find a co-worker to help her move my bag off the scale, I said my goodbyes to Nanny and continued on to security. While waiting in a line (I know, line at Harrisburg... what?!?), I reached in my bag for my phone and gasped "OH NO! MY PHONE!". An image of my phone in Nanny's driver's side door flashed through my mind and I began sprinting (backpack and all) to the car. Now this isn't the first time I've sprinted through an airport, but normally it's large airports where I know I will never see the people again. Not bitty local airports where you come back and every security guard and person in line wants to know what happened and if I got whatever I forgot. Nevertheless, I got my phone, went through the line, and got to my gate without a problem.
The rest of the trip wasn't too exciting: Bad food. Good movie selection. I had a few delays because of storms but I got to Spain so WAHOOOOO!
My First Day.
I got into Madrid around 9:30 Wednesday (a little later than expected) and got my bags. (Phew... I was a little nervous since I switched flights from Harrisburg to Philly after checking in. I didn't know if they would be too keen on moving my monstrosity of a bag.) I left through customs and was greeted by Clara and her boyfriend, Adrian, calling my name with the wonderful Spanish accent. Yay!
We got back to Clara's apartment and Adrian insisted on pulling my suitcases. Upon picking it up, however, he was a little confused how I had managed the 94 pound bag. Although I can't bench 250 pounds (shout out to UB!), I can manage a heavy rolling duffel, my friends. When we got to the apartment I dropped my stuff in Clara's mom's room, ate a late breakfast, and began the apartment search with Clara and Adrian's help. By 3:00 I had called a piso (flat, apartment), set up a meeting time, taken a short nap, and gotten to the piso via Metro by myself. After seeing that apartment, Adrian picked my up on his moto (scooter/motorcycle... yes, Molly, I rode one and it was awesome!) and took me to three other apartments. I think that is what you call "hitting the ground running."
To be honest, my first three days weren't too exciting, so I'll just give you the highlights:
Piso search. Pretty much every free moment was looking on pisocompartido.com, calling people, riding the metro, and checking out the pisos. Here's a list of why the first 9 (9 that I went to see, I looked at way more than this online) were rejected...
#1 - No living room.
#2 - 5 people to one (very small) bathroom? No thanks.
#3 - Only double rooms available.
#4 - 14 girls to one apartment, no boys allowed. I'm sure my Dad would like this but when a male comes to visit me, I want to be able to show him where I live...
#5 - No living room or table to eat at.
#6 - Too far North, not a great neighborhood. (Fun tidbit: It was on the 5th floor and there was no elevator. The 94 pound suitcase could have been problematic then...)
#7 - Wanted a decision on the spot. And the person showing me the apartment was the one that was leaving, not the ones who I would be living with.
#8 - Way too expensive.
#9 - No oven. Can I go a year without baking anything? Probs not.
The one that I saw this morning was modest but had everything I wanted (great location, friendly flatmates, a living room, and a fully-equipped kitchen). My room even had a (small) closet! Whoooooooa. So I will probably go with this one, though I can't move in until October. It feels good to know I can spend my time blogging and reading my Fulbright e-mails instead of being addicted to copying and pasting piso addresses into GoogleMaps.
Vogue Fashion Night. Thursday night all of the expensive stores in el barrio de Salamanca (the poshies area of Madrid) opened up from 20:00 - 0:00. The stores and streets were filled with models, free drinks, and supposedly Katie Holmes! I met up with some other Fulbrighters there, which was fun but a bit of a struggle since my body was still adjusting to the time change. Here's a quick video capturing the scene:
Phone! Yep, I got one. This little Samsung Galaxy has gotten me from one apartment to the next via GoogleMaps. How did people survive before the internet? Also, for anyone with a smartphone... you can download 'Whatsapp' and we can text through the internet. Just e-mail/facebook message me your phone number so I can add it into my contacts. Technology these days...
Wonderful people. Clara and Adrian are two of the nicest, most generous people I have met. They are so helpful; I can't imagine trying to do this without their input about good neighborhoods, metro lines, and phone plans. Carol DeWitt, a missionary with Missions to the World, has also been wonderful. She is helping with the apartment search and is the one who put me in contact with Clara to begin with! I'm going to check out the church MTW is working with tomorrow morning; I hope to get more connected to a church community through their ministry.
Well, my friends, sorry for the wait on my first post. If I wasn't piso searching, the thought of looking at my computer made me want to sleep. But now that I'm sipping on some mint tea (of course) and have some sense of peace about a piso, I am able to enjoy a leisurely late morning blog post.
Thank you to all who are supporting me in prayer throughout this adventure. I know things have worked out (or not worked out) because of the prayers that are being showered upon me daily. So many uncertainties still lie ahead, but I am excited to see what God has prepared for me in this place!
Much love.
In His grip,
Amber
Disclaimer: This blog records my personal thoughts and reflections; it is not reflective of the positions held by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
