Adventures in sunny Glasgow.

Ok, so I am finally in Palma. It took four days and around 24 hours in 4 countries to get here, but I'm here. Here's the story. Sunday night (the first) I took off from Chicago O'Hare with Leslie and Brian. All was well (due to free new release movies and free mini bottles of cabernet..hehe) on the plane until we were circling London Heathrow and the captain announced that due to serious snowstorms in London, Heathrow was closed - had no room on the runways for us to land, and had requested that we find somewhere else to land. Well, everywhere else in England was either closed or full as well, so we ended up landing in Glasgow, Scotland and were stuck there for 24 hours. Fantastic. After our 24 hour stint in Glasgow (where english is an entirely different language and the holiday inn there, I swear it did not use ANY heat. it was freezing inside and out) we finally got on our plane again (After a 2 hour wait due to technical difficulties) and headed for London. We got to London just fine, but were stuck for an hour in baggage claim and missed the only other flight to Madrid that day. It was still SO chaotic in Heathrow. SO...we spent a night in London and caught the 8:15 flight to Madrid the next morning. Once we got to Madrid, we had a 4 hour layover plus a 2 hour delay because...well, who knows why. Anyway, we got to Palma just in time to grab a taxi outside the airport and rush to the hotel that was hosting our orientation and met our host families and were at our homestays less than an hour after we arrived in the Palma Airport. Crazy. Insane. I don't have the words to describe those four days. But, it was actually a great experience because we met 8 other people studying around Spain and in Rome for the semester in Scotland, and all 11 of us stayed together until Madrid - so new friends and people to stay with when traveling :) . always an asset.

The last couple of days in Palma have been super busy - trying to make up for the 2 missed days of orientation (Due to travel difficulties) - and meeting people, trying to communicate successfully, buy shampoo, navigate this crazy city, etc. Palma is gorgeous - mountains and beaches together are always a good combo and my homestay is 5 minutes away from the beach!! my "senora" is adorable, I'm living with her, her husband and her son, and so far it's wonderful. They are all so helpful (although none of them speak a word of english) and Maria (my senora) is a great cook and wakes me up in the mornings when I sleep through my alarm (apparently a trend that is continuing abroad. whoops). I will post pictures as soon as possible, everything has been so crazy. Tomorrow I start my intensive language classes and on the 16th I start real classes at UIB (Universitat de les Iles Baleares = university of the balearic islands). Catalan is pretty prevalent here - as you can tell by the name of the university - it's in Catalan, but everyone speaks both Catalan and Castellano, so it's no problem - fortunately. But okay I really have to sleep. I just got back from a little date with 2 of the other girls in my program - Cara and Ann -for some vino. it's pretty cheap here! 1.90 Euro for a glass. not bad, huh? and it's a LOT better than Franzia. (boxed wine - not that I drink that...haha).

ok bedtime -- more later in the week. :) ciao!