Our Journey Began With A Prayer

HA. Only if prayer equals severe racial profiling on the part of my mother. No worries though, the first plane made it safely to Chicago. On the flight to Madrid there was some minor turbulence, but of course that was due to some cloud cover over the Atlantic...not the suspicious back row occupants. Parting with the fam was a tad bit sad, but it was definitely time for me to leave. I'm pretty sure they would be kicking me out of the house right now if I hadn't already been running away myself.

Highlight of the journey (not really a highlight...which is a testament to the extreme longevity of this day):
I was peacefully dozing in and out in my window seat with my horseshoe pillow around my neck when all of a sudden I felt something grab my foot and lift it up! I was so confused and then I felt my other foot being poked and prodded under the chair in front of me. I jerked my feet back into my area (I may or may not have been encroaching on the area of the person in front of me) and looked up to see what exactly was going on. Apparently this small child sitting in front of me had dropped something under his chair, was searching for it in the dark, and mistakenly grabbed my feet instead of his misplaced object. He was so embarrassed. Poor kid.

After a long and lullaby-esque bus ride from Madrid to Toledo, I finally got to meet my host mom, Pili (short for Pilar). The presentation of the students to their host families is probably the most awkward thing I've ever witnessed. We were stacked all the way up a staircase and the families were waiting in a crowd in the lobby. Someone called our name and we had to squirm our way to the bottom of the stairs, where the host family was eagerly waiting to give us dos besos (one kiss on each cheek) when we emerged.

So Pili and I dos besos-ed and then she just went off in her rapid-fire Spanish about how she was so excited to have me (I think that's what she said?) and she can't wait for me to meet her daughter, Raquel, who is exactly my age! I just kind of sat there and interjected some sís and ahhhh qué biens into her chattering. It was kind of uncomfortable not being able to communicate as well as I would have liked to, but she was understanding. But THEN, Raquel called her mom on her cell phone and they were just chitchatting away so I zoned out until I looked down and saw, right in front of my face, Pili's cell phone in her outstretched arm. Um, sorry, I am NOT ready to converse on the telephone yet. But I couldn't say no to Pili's encouraging smile so I braced myself for more inevitable awkwardness. A few sís, "un poco cansada"s, and "uhh adios?"s later, the milestone of first phone convo was finally over. Moving ON.

We move in with our host families tomorrow. Right now my suitcases have somehow exploded and everything is everywhere inside my tiny dorm room at the Fundación. Hopefully they will repack themselves in the morning. Tonight we have an ice breaker party with all the kids staying at the Fund, but after not having slept for I don't even know how many hours, I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake!