Finally Arrived!

Wow! It's been a long 24 hours, but we made it to Mondragon, Spain!

We started off taking a short flight from Fort Worth to Atlanta, Georgia. From there, we took an 8 hour flight to Paris, France. After hours waiting for the screen to tell us our next gate, we had to walk through fog and cold winds to a bus that led us to a walkway to our airplane.

After we arrived in Bilbao, we had instructions to find a specific bus; however, that bus was leaving in 2 hours. As we sat, reality set in and some of us began to stress about how long we have been traveling and how are we going to find our dorms.

Once we were on the bus, we all had to keep each other awake. Thankfully, Andrea had great service and was able to track what stop we needed. We finally got off the bus, but we had no clue where we had to go next. According to google maps, it was a 10 minute walk, but half of that walk was uphill. We all had bags weighing over 50 pounds and we were all exhausted.

After a very large hill, we realized that Google maps had no idea where the place was. Us girls sent Victor on a goose chase back down the hill to look at certain buildings we thought would be the spot. He went around a corner and it was time for Andrea to get a look. She ran down and back to say that all the gates are closed and no one is around. Panic hit in again and we called our main contact Jon. Thank goodness Andrea, Victor, and Camila speak very good Spanish because Jon and I would not have been able to communicate. Jon was trying to contact someone working, but could not.

We all walked down that large hill and sat at the gate. We got many looks and a few asked us in Spanish if we needed to get into the school. Finally, Paul, our savior, came running out and said we were lucky he looked out his window to find us. He said that he was given the wrong information about the times we would come, but nevertheless, we had made it and he was ready for us.

All of us are in 3 rooms that are next to each other and the bathrooms and showers are uni-sex. The bedrooms are huge because they can hold three students! And our view is incredible. Even though we all were exhausted, we had to get food. However, meal times in Spain are very different. They eat a small breakfast, have close to two hours for lunch around noon, and dinner at 8:30-9pm. So we missed a meal time and were unable to find anything, but pringles at the one open market on a Sunday.

We met with another contact, Tane, and she walked us around the square so we are familiar with our surroundings. She told us that many of us will not be in the same place to teach. I just wish I knew more Spanish.

While this was very stressful and overwhelming, we have made it safely and it is an incredible feeling being in Spain. I cannot wait for all the adventures ahead and all the memories!

Until next post,
Jillian