Who Says You Can’t Go Home (Apparently Iberian Airlines)???/Reflections…

At about 2 a.m. Sunday morning, I finally made it to back to the RDU (Raleigh-Durham International Airport), where I was received by my Mom, Dad, and little brother, and escorted back to Greensboro…But, let’s just say, it wasn’t easy to even get to that point…

At around 9:00 Saturday morning, the whole group arrived at Barajas (Madrid’s international airport) to start the long trek back to the States…While everyone else went to their respective stations immediately, I just sat down and chilled for a bit, because my flight was leaving at 13:50 (1:50)…Or so I thought…

See, by the time 11:20 rolled around, I checked the Departures list to see where exactly I needed to go to ship off my luggage and which terminal/gate I needed to be in…But looking on the screen, I noticed that there wasn’t an Iberian Airlines flight at 13:50 for JFK…Something was not right here…

So I immediately went to the baggage counter thing to ask whether there was a flight at 1:50 for New York…She checked and answered my question, giving me 3 pieces of bad news: 1) Sólo hay un vuelo a las 12:20 (There’s only a flight at 12:20); 2) El embarque para este vuelo ya está cerrado (The boarding for this flight’s closed already); 3) No tienes billete (You don’t have a ticket)…Hence, you can imagine my reaction…

…Say what, now!?!?…

I could not understand it–I mean, my round trip tickets were bought months earlier with the specific departure time of 1:50 with Iberian…So, for her to say all of that did not make sense at all to me…

Immediately, I booked it to the Customer Service desk and explained my whole situation to the nice young lady behind the desk, showing her my printed out confirmation thing and trying not to completely lose it (by now I had started tearing up a little)…The whole thing was especially bad because: 1) I had left my cell phone in Salamanca at my host parents’s house for the next kid to use–therefore, I had no way of calling anybody (I didn’t remember numbers, either); 2) I don’t even know if I had enough euros on me anyway to be able to get a bus back to Salamanca and maybe regroup; and 3) I had nowhere near enough money on my card to buy another ticket…Therefore, if nothing could be done, I was pretty much stranded there (Read: Screwed)…

The lady called American Airlines (who Iberia is linked up with), and it was confirmed that, yes, I had a bought-and-paid-for flight with them, and that they screwed up majorly…With that in account, they offered to change my flight for free–which I accepted, of course–and therefore, I ended up on the 4:50 flight to JFK (Thank You, Father)…

The flight back was longer than the flight to Spain, clocking in at 8 hours…However I was mainly concerned about getting in contact with my Mom and telling her that I was going to arrive 2 hours later than expected due to the snafu…

Turns out, I would arrive even later than expected…After being seriously delayed in customs (due to “inclimate weather”), I shipped offed my main luggage and booked it to the terminal (ending up in the wrong one at first)…After dealing with the extremely annoying TSA security process (so sorry, but I can’t take off my traveling purse in front of you, Mr. D-bag–It’s under my shirt and across my shoulder), I made it to the front desk of Jet Blue and managed to get my boarding pass…Come to find out that that flight was delayed 2 hours due to “inclimate weather”, meaning I would arrive at Raleigh at around 2…Yeah…

But, everything was smooth-sailing from there, and I ended up back in the ‘Boro…

Oh, and if you didn’t get the song allusion of my title, here it is (happy, Ma???):

On a (somewhat awkwardly transitioned and) different note, looking back on my time in Spain, it’s truly been one of the highlights of my life…It was a semester marked by firsts:

My first time blogging seriously: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/first-post/)
My first time out of the country/in Europe: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/las-primeras-impresiones-first-impressions/)
My first time in a palace: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/exploring-salamanca/)
My first time in a cathedral: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/exploring-salamanca-part-2/)
My first time in a tapas bar: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/como-los-espanoles-comen-tapas-how-spaniards-eat-tapas/)
My first time seeing Ancient Roman architecture: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/strolling-through-segovia/)
My first time studying at a foreign university: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/mi-horario-diario-universitario-my-daily-scholastic-schedule/)
My first time at a professional football match: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/game-day-el-clasico/)
My first time drinking champagne: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/el-norte-dia-1-leon-and-oviedo/)
My first time at a vineyard: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/day-trip-los-arribes-del-duero-y-fermoselle/)
My first time at a Holy Week procession: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/la-semana-santa/)
My first time in a mosque: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/captivating-cordoba/)
My first time in a hostel: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/on-top-of-the-world-at-the-end-of-the-world-galicia-part-1/)
My first time going moshing: (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/betty-is-an-indie-punk-rocker-sala-potemkim/)
My first time recounting my story in full (well, sort of): (https://thepumpkinshead.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/why-am-i-here-my-spain-story/)

Considering all this, it was pretty hard to leave Spain, because there’s still so much there for me to see: Valencia, The Canary Islands, Mallorca–I could go on…But it’s cool–I know in my heart-of-hearts I shall return…

And as for this blog, you haven’t heard the last from me–because I have so many other places I have to explore, not just Spain (sorry if I repeat myself): England, Ireland (Northern and Regular), Scotland, Wales, Italy (my top country in Europe), Greece, Portugal, Versailles/Cannes/Dijon (the only places in France I’d be interested in going to), Germany, Austria, Poland, Denmark, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Belgium, Luxembourg Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Croatia, Russia, the Ukraine, Romania, Turkey, Israel (when things settle down), India, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Korea (South side, of course), Australia, New Zealand, Polynesia, Micronesia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco (maybe), Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico (when things settle down), Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Jamaica, and, of course, Canada (I’m thinking I’m forgetting some things)!!…

Hopefully, my adventures will start again soon (maybe sooner than you think, ;-)), and when they do, I’ll keep you posted…Until then, patience, my friends!!!!

With all due respect,

Betty Joe Alexandria Virginia Ogburn (a.k.a. Pumpkin Head)