Spain Day 1:

My first day in Spain was pretty amazing, despite feeling super jetlagged and being awake for almost 36 hours straight.

Waiting for flight #1

I Flew from SFO to Miami then had a four hour layover. From Miami I flew to Barcelona.

The flights were pretty smooth save for some turbulence near the end of the Miami to Barca flight. I think that turbulence should really be renamed because for the unsuspecting passenger mere "turbulence" doesn't do it justice. Over the years I've become accustomed to it and just pretend I'm on a roller coaster of something of the like because if you're gonna go you might as well be thinking you're on a roller coaster and not a flying metal tube of doom. The PA system should just go ahead and be honest in saying that "folks we're going to be hitting a patch of near death in a minute, please buckle your seat belts." Or maybe that's just me.

Landed safe in Barca.

I didn't have to wait long for the people from my program to find me and after I got some money from the ATM we went off to the next terminal to wait for the next participant to arrive. Because my host mom was feeling under the weather, the people greeting me were Syliva (my main contact through all of this) and Josep (the program coordinator). We walked over to Terminal 2 where Alana, a girl from Ireland was supposed to be arriving around 10:30. My flight got in an hour early and since we had a little extra time we stopped to grab a bite to eat. After talking for a bit we walked back into the terminal and proceeded to wait. 

 dinero en mano

Part of the welcome committee

After we made sure Alana and her host family were all set Sylvia, Josep, and I went to the car and drove into Barcelona. They had to stay near the airport for the day as more participants flew in and they wanted me to see the city before I drove to Malgrat that night so the called a girl called Jessica to be my tour guide for the day. Jessica is a student from the UK and she is doing her compulsory year abroad in Barcelona as she studies Spanish. She wasn't really expecting to give a pop tour that day but she was a trooper about it. Apparently she had been out partying till around six that morning but she was really cool in showing me around Barcelona. 

We saw many of the main attractions unique to Spain included la Sagrada familia, camp nou, and el estadio olympico. We must have walked at least three miles altogether in combination with the buses and trolleys. Overall the views and atmosphere was crazy cool and I did my best to take everything it. It can be a bit overwhelming for a traveler as they are bombarded with sights, sounds, and potential pick pockets all around you. 

Lunch time! Pizza burger

Site of the 92' Olympics

After a busy day of flying, walking, and sightseeing it was finally time to drive to Malgrat. Jessica was helping out with the program introduction in Girona so met back up with Josep and Sylvia and Josep. After about an hour drive I finally got to meet up with my host family. They are awesome and really nice. The mom (Marga) constantly insists that I tell her if I want more food or to immediately tell her if I don't like any food she makes. It's all been delicious so far. By this point I was beyond tired and the jetlag had settled in nicely. I took a shower and unpacked then hit the hay. A very successful day in my book, I mean who can say they step off the plane and get a free guided tour of Barcelona?? I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to such a beautiful city and country.

Saturday/wormhole plane trip/magically Sunday

Time to head out! Got to the airport and everything went well for the most part. Got all checked in and got the crew together for a picture. Gowan's mom would not allow us to leave without taking a plethora of pictures.

SFO

Well that was by far the most uncomfortable plane ride I've ever been on thus far. Kudos to United Airlines thought for having pretty good customer service and feeding us three times in the 11 hours in the air. Nonetheless it's nearly impossible for people of our size and shape to stay comfy for that long in the air. The plane was a 747 and had rows of 3-4-3 and it was packed. Most of us sat in the last few rows of the plane so rows 50-59 of 60. I was in row 59 but luckily I had people I knew in my row.

Flying with 600 of your most distant friends

This flight gave me a true appreciation of what one can accomplish in half a day and also how much being in one small seat for so long can drive you crazy. Stir crazy doesn't even begin to describe how we felt from about hour five on. It was quite the predicament because we left at 11:30 AM UST and arrived in Japan at 2:30 their time so we tried not to sleep (didn't succeed) on the plane so as not to be up all night when we arrived. So 1. We're in a small space 2. We can't sleep 3. The in flight movies were in Chinese. I was extremely productive though. I had time to catch parts of three different movies, eat three meals, read two magazines, nap twice, and read about 300 pages of game of thrones. Talk about getting stuff done. All I need to do from now on is fly internationally and my productivity rates will skyrocket. Only problem is that I'd probably lose my mind in the process.

Universal communication

 Despite all of this we arrived in Osaka and set off on our journey. Immediately met the first hitch in the trip with the customs process. We had to fill out two different forms with our entry info but the people in the customs section of the airport had very little english speaking experience. It was basically equivalent to me cloning myself then asking the other me questions in English expecting fluent Japanese responses. Got through it thought and next thing you know we're on a bus to the hotel.

The bus ride took a while, in fact we drove for about an hour and it totally destroyed my notin of how big Osaka was. All we saw on the freeway to the hotel were ports, baseball fields, and industrial districts. We got to the hotel though and it looked really nice. Had some time to snag a few pictures in front of the hotel and despite the language barrier we made it to the rooms.

In front of the hotel

Can you say stipend?

 After getting settled, dreary eyed and stiff from the flight, we set off into the unknown with the Japanese head coach and two Japanese student assistants as guides. We trekked through a local shopping center and took in the local fanfare. The highlight of the afternoon though and helping me check off number five from my Japan bucket list was trying the fried squid. This delicacy was recommended so, when in Rome.

Fried squid. Pretty tasty. Won't be trying again I'm afraid

We ended the day with a dinner at a restaurant we found. We got lost on the way back to the hotel because by then our guides had left to go home. We found some missionaries from the States and talked to them for a bit. One was from Huntington beach but the directions they gave us didn't really help. We eventually found our way back to the hotel to call it a night. An eventful two days it was indeed. We have another day to to explore and I'm looking forward to it.