Lobster, Storks, and Jet-Lag

Alright, I started writing a blog post while I was sitting in the Heathrow Airport. It started to get all gooey and emotional and reflective and boring and really hard to write about. I deleted it.

I’m going to sum up my trip to Boston, which was totally awesome, by the way. I love my sister and brother…and my other sister too, I guess. I went to Michelle’s lab a couple of times. She showed me around and explained a lot of things to me, and I’d like to share it all with you: Michelle does science. Yep. That’s it. I “helped” her with some PCR’s (that’s polymerase chain reactions in case you wanted to know) since that’s what I did for a whole summer. I still managed to ruin her results though. Ah, science, how great thou art. (Sarcasm is hard to convey via text…I’ve decided I hate science. Should probably do something about that biochemistry major then). I also went to her “poster session.” I didn’t know that this was also a bit of technical jargon, which actually means “adult science fair.” Boring, but I got to spend time with Michelle and I was reading one poster for so long that this guy thought it was mine and took my picture with it. It’s probably on the MIT website. Haha. What else did we do?? We went to Boston Common which is a giant park, I was frightened by birds, we looked at old buildings, I found Harvard and waited there for Michelle to get off work and come help me get back home, and we played some serious bocce ball. I’m glad I didn’t go to Harvard. The more campuses I see, the more I love Iowa; the more cities I visit, the more I love Iowa City…Of course, we did a lot of other stuff, but I don’t want to make you jealous. BUT I remembered something after I finished writing the rest of the blog. We cooked lobster! We passed a grocery store with a sign that said “Alive and Kickin’ $4.99/lb.” Neither Michelle nor I had ever cooked lobster and I’m not even sure if I’d eaten it before. Naturally, we bought a lobster. We took it home and put it in the sink to keep it alive until dinner. “But lobsters live in salt water,” says I. So, we put salt in the water. Then the lobster died. Also, Michelle and John's cat is toilet trained. True story.

Ok, now the good stuff. I’m in Spain. For real. How did this happen?! I honestly felt so Unprepared that I still have a hard time believing that I made it here all by myself. The flights were ok; no explosions of snot this time. The only little hitch (that I feel is worth sharing) happened when I landed in Madrid. The flight I was on went from London to Madrid, so everything was said in Spanish and English. Well, I was asleep and missed the English portion of the announcement informing all passengers who were staying in Madrid to exit the front of the plane now while people with connecting flights should wait and exit the rear. I did hear the Spanish part and knew that there were two groups of people leaving at different times and from different places, I just missed the characteristics that placed people into the groups. I decided it was best just to sit there and wait until everyone was out of the way then ask an attendant or just get off the plane. Bad idea. Luckily, the nice English chap next to me asked why I wasn’t getting off (I had already told him I was going to Madrid). So, I got up and got my things just in time to be annoying and walk against the crowd coming to the back of the plane then make the crew unlock and reopen all the doors from the plane to the customs area. It was great, but the fun didn’t stop. I went through customs alright, but the shuttle I was supposed to catch was leaving from Terminal 1. I was at Terminal 4. First of all, there are no information centers or airport workers in sight to ask for directions. Second, the signs were few and far between. I ended up finding my way to a bus stop and took a bus to T1. However, T1 “salidas” and T1 “llagadas” are on different levels and the bus only goes to the “salidas.” I managed to wander around long enough to find a way to the lower level arrivals. I had wandered too far and was at the T2 arrivals. All in all, I ended up walking past the group twice (they weren’t holding the sign) to get to the lady at T1 who was waiting.

Oh! I received my first official “Cheerio” from an authentic Brit. Yes, it was everything I imagined it would be. Yes, it has been the highlight of the trip so far. No, I do not have high standards.

When I was getting ready for this trip, I gave my parents three options: 1. I run with the bulls. 2. I get in a soccer riot. 3. I do both. Of course, they say neither, which is the same as saying number 3. I knew Barcelona was in the Champion’s League Finals against Manchester United, but I didn’t know when the match was. It was yesterday. Barcelona won. There were riots. I missed them by less than 12 hours. Hopefully, I can start another one. As for the San Fermin Festival and the running of the bulls, a place to stay will cost around 95E per person per night, BUT a lot of people just sleep in parks, which is free and has a chance of a run-in with an authentic Spanish sex offender! Cha-ching!

Anyway, we went to downtown Alcalá today and walked around. Apparently, Alcalá is known for all the storks that live downtown (I’m terrified of birds, btw.). It will be an experience going to class everyday with those beady little eyes staring at my jugular. Other than that, downtown is really cool. I know, awesome description, “cool.” But, it’s late and I’m jet-lagged. Two more things real fast:

1. I saw the sun rise while at 30,000ft. Most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen ever ever.

2. It didn’t get dark until 10:00, which was also when we finished an absolutely gigantic 2 hour dinner. Ima get fat.