Prólogo: On the Wings of a Dream

"The Road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

The little bit of sky hardly visible to those who wander in the shadows of the long, massive buildings shines bright blue on a warm day.

I've arrived safely in Spain. I'm in the hotel of the CIEE - Madrid Orientation and trying to relax. I'm running on little sleep due to the wonderful conditions of airplane traveling as well as trying to readjust my body to a clock that's seven hours faster than what I'm used to. But nevertheless, I'm alive and well, and trying to take in this big new world and this completely different situation I've put myself in. Don't mistake that for fear necessarily, but it is a little bit overwhelming.

So, my first day adventure. How did it go?!

Well, there was this really long plane ride from Memphis to Amsterdam, which was treacherous. First of all, we flew over Canada, which little did we know was the home of Big Foot! He attempted to attack our plane by hiding in the midst of tall trees and then leaping high into the air with his paw above his head ready to swipe at one of the plane wings! Luckily for us, the pilot maneuvered us away from Big Foot's assault, and we made it to soaring above the Atlantic. But then that disturbed The Kraken (yes, it lives in the Atlantic; trust me, I didn't know that, either!), and it attempted to destroy us by creating a huge monsoon and then grasping us in its tentacles! Though it was a bumpy ride, we somehow managed to fly through the storm, escape the grasps of The Kraken, and arrive safely in Amsterdam.

And then after that, there was another plane ride! Shorter (from Amsterdam to Madrid), but still a wild ride from the takeoff! We flew above an active volcano, which conveniently decided to erupt right as we flew by. With the help of Matthew McConaughey, we dodged flaming rocks and lava waves, and finally made it to Madrid.

...Okay, so I'm slightly over-exaggerating. But we really did fly over 100 miles of Canada, and the pilot seriously looked like Matthew McConaughey (no complaints here). Mainly, it'd been a long time since I've been in an airplane for five hours or longer - I think the last time was the family vacation to Cancun, which was right before my sophomore year of high school - so I was a little nervous. But all in all, the flights went pretty smoothly, with the exception of this woman who would be playing with her bag most of the time and therefore continuously elbowing as she was doing so, and this wild little girl sitting in front of me who would proceed to whip her body back into her chair, making it shake and knocking my food off the fold-out table and onto my lap. But I guess neither one of them is Big Foot, The Kraken, or a volcano.

Amsterdam had kind of a neat airport, actually -- it's enormous, and there were so many different little shops (more than what you'd normally see in an American airport, I guess). They must have spoken at least four other languages there (English, Dutch, Spanish, and I think I heard some French in one of the announcements). Even on my flight from Amsterdam to Madrid, the captain made sure he made the same announcement in English, Dutch, and Spanish, which is kind of neat.

It was pretty straightforward from there. I found my enormous duffel bag (full of a semester's worth of clothes and other things), got a taxi, and headed for the hotel. The taxi ride was alright nice; I was kind of timid, but the driver was fairly talkative, and even though I felt that my Spanish speaking was broken at time, he was generous and talked kind of slow; I was able to pick up on most of the things he said. We actually ended up discussing 80s music for a little bit(after a Lemonheads cover of "Mrs. Robinson" came on). Then I got to the hotel, got into my room, and woke Robby up from his deep slumber, a slumber which he would return to after I stopped in to say hello. Te he.

As I was sitting in the cab, though, I just kept on looking at the city, and realizing how huge it really is. It's a different type of big in comparison to US cities, but I felt like it just stretched on forever, kind of like when you see a really flat cornfield go on for miles on end, and feel like it's at least a hundred miles long. There's just so much to see in this city, and that's both exciting and scary at the same time.

So yeah, not too much for a first day (and I managed to write that much? Yeesh). I'm very tired and need to just sit back for a little bit. It's all a little bit crazy right now, but I'm certain that this is going to be a great and beneficial experience. Things will come together in a few days, and even more exciting things are to come from there.

Hasta luego. Adios, amigos!

~ LSquared