What is it, bring your child to Spain day?

Flying over the Ocean :)

As I sat down to write this blog entry today I got utterly confused and had to ask Manda what day I needed to pick up on. We have been flying/sitting in an airport for 24 hours straight and the nights turned into day and we weren't quite to sure when we were supposed to sleep. We left Denver (safely and on time) and flew into Philadelphia. Philadelphia's airport was extremely hot and we were dedicated to following the signs to get where we needed to be. As we sped for our gate, with Morg and Jen leading the way a man semi-lunged toward Morgan making wild animal noises. Jenna said she was thinking "Where is my pepper spray? Where is it? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Fail." Thankfully the man just was making crazy noises and wasn't actually a huge threat or anything and we found out that Jen's pepper spray was in a zip block bag in the bottom of her bag...really handy Jen, real handy. Feel so much safer with it locked up in there ;)

We had to get our tickets stamped at the counter in order to enter our international flight. So one by one we go through the line and got our passports examined. I was last to be examined. The round bellied man with round glasses and a round face was in charge of stamping my ticket. He glanced down at my 14 year old self framed in time (with my big ol' buck teeth and scraggly red hair) and stared back at my self today. He stamped my ticket and then stared a little longer at my passport. Beads of sweat started to form at my head, what could possibly go wrong now? The round man licked his teeth and let out a sigh of...well...disgust I guess. "Where you traveling to ma'am?"..."Spain, Mr. Sir"..."Hmmm.." Those forms of sweat turned into running waterfalls, most likely from the intense heat radiating from the walls in Philly, but also from my deep down fear of having one more possibility of not making it to Spain. "You know ma'am if you were traveling to Ambsterdam I wouldn't be able to let you on this plane."...Insert here a minor panic attack streaming from my forehead wrinkles. "Why?"..."Because Ambsterdam along with tons of other places will not let in a traveler that does not have a Visa passport valid through three months after their arrival."...."But I can like go still right?".."You may but seriously, next time check those things before you try to leave the country." International travel =2....Mary= 0

We sat in the Philly airport as our plane was delayed because the cleaning crew was taking their sweeet sweet time. We were chatting and facebooking and having a jolly good time until one of us (I don't recall which brilliant one of us it was) asked..."Sooo how do we get our tickets once we are in Brussels?" We then realized we were about to board an international flight and lose all contact with the lovely Americans we love but we had no idea where or how we were supposed to get our boarding passes to Seville from Brussels, Belgium. Morgan called MaryAnn, we figured heck if MaryAnn doesn't know, nobody will know. She tell us to go to information and tell them our issues, psh why didn't we think about this?

We load up into the plane and are surrounded by what it felt like 14 different languages. Every instruction was repeated again in French. But the people surrounding us talked to fast I wasn't sure whether it was French, Spanish...even English for goodness sake! The flight went well, we were served a precious little dinner consisting of chicken and mash potatoes or pasta and a brownie. Yummmmm. Then Jen and Manda took a dramamine and conked out. Morgan and I tossed and turned with our matchy pink pillows trying to become comfortable. At one point my seatbelt was completely loose but still buckled, but I was turned on my side laying my head on the seat. The comfiest position I had laid in yet,  but still I only slept through part of a movie and then continued to toss and turn. This flight was semi cruicial for our transition into the 8 hour jump. We were going to call the sleep on the plane our night time sleep. We used the phrase "like we were up all night partying" to compare our tiredness to something other than just being awake with deathly low amounts of snoozing.

Brussels was an experience. We were "Au Revoir"ed and "Chao"ed as we left the plane and then continued our journey by following English signs held by French individuals. We wandered and looked at boards, we knew our gate was A but we had no idea the gate number. We also thought we had to re-check our bags. We sat and watched as loads of bags cruised us by, taunting us with their boxy figures and similar colors. Our bags never scurried across the conveyer belt and so Jen and Manda took charge to go find out the real story...Turns out our bags got a first class trip past the re-checking and into the plane to Seville. Boooyah! That then left us with our last dilema...boarding passes. We were told we needed to go through customs/security again. Obviously I began to mentally sigh because I knew they would find some way to get me and hold us back, luckily this time we had an hour and a half till our flight...not two minutes. We all go cruising through the security, taking our shoes off and laying our liquids out for them to examine. I casually walk through the beeper thing-a-mo-bob and then politely asked if the backpack in his hand was mine. OF COURSE it was mine, I had to be stopped by security for this to be a real experience. This time I wasn't fondled or touched, I actually got to open my bag and pull things out, and this time I was stopped because it was my fault...I left American water in my water bottle. Sin. I was then asked if I would empty it and then re enter throughout the beep bopper thing. I went through loud and clear this time, sending us on our way once again.

We got our boarding passes at the information desk and she directed through the glass wall. In the room we were in there were glass walls. You could clearly see the exit..but the entrance looked about every other square. That Windex stuff really does work, looks see through. We look like dumb tourist Americans standing droopy eyed and lost while happy swift Europeans flee behind the great wall of glass. Failing the arms got us no where so we decided to walk next to the edge, and guess what? Walah! We found the entrance and then made our way to A43 to the last leg of our journey.

The ride to Seville was controlled by Spanish speaking workers and I slept like a baby. Only weird thing (because there most definitely has to be a weird thing to happen to us) is the girl who was seated next to Manda and I on the plane had a HUGE staring issue. She sat down and stared, we talked she stared, we slept I am sure she stared, I looked out the window, she stared. You get the idea. She was super creepy staring at us and watching our every move but never actually saying anything. I figured she as just creepy or something but Manda came to a logical conclusion that she probably didn't speak English and was trying to figure out what we were saying...makes sense. I guess...Also, our bags made it safely and thus confirmed a super successful 24 hour flight. The name sake of this entry is because there was at least 15 children on our plane ride from Brussels to Seville. The most kids any of us have seen on a plane ride, we are talking itty bitty babies and hotty totty toddlers. It was nuts.

Steve and Pia (the people we are house sitting for) have a beautiful home. Matilde and Vincent are wonderful and they showed us a wonderful first day. We swam and tanned (I sat in the shade and coated on my sunscreen) and also took our first journey into Seville to do some grocery shopping wiht Matilde and Pia. We didn't feel like we stuck out too bad, but people definitely did a double take. There aren't too many light skinned or blondes around these parts. Steve cooked us a delicious meal called Paella. And now we sit in a cool living room watching a movie and soaking up the day ended.

Tomorrow they are showing us the way to the ocean (about a hour away) because we were informed the Spainards don't do anything on Sundays. Nothing at all. I think I am going to like it here. We learned today that I most definitely cannot speak Spanish, that funny things come out of Jenna's mouth at all points of the day, and that being in good company is the best feeling in the world. Until the next crazy adventure...peace&love.