Airport

Everything was going so smoothly. I had just successfully had a Spanish conversation with a food vendor in the airport who informed me they did NOT have ice cream. I was finishing off my book and my flight still hadn't shown up on the monitors. For some bizarre reason, the Spanish have decided that they are only going to monitor the flights that are all ready boarding. I realized this about an hour before my flight, so I started asking around. Had another successful Spanish conversation where I learned from some guy with a toddler that I should find the information booth. Then I had a failed Spanish conversation in the VIP lounge of SpanAir where I learned (in English) that I need to walk towards the shopping area. Then I had another English conversation 20 minutes later where I learned exactly where I needed to go. There was a really long line and I didn't have a boarding pass, and was starting to panic. I didn’t even try to speak Spanish to these people. They wouldn't let me on the plane. Since they had started boarding, I wasn't allowed a pass. Since it was completely my fault because of my tardiness, they weren't going to give me one for another flight and I would have to but a completely new pass. Since I wasn't getting on this plane, they weren't going to let my luggage on it and I had to go claim it at baggage claim.

For the record, this is officially the first time I've cried over something relating to this trip. There were a lot of almost-cries on my way to the Visa office when I was half-hour late for my fifteen-minute appointment, or saying bye to my family, but I completely broke down over this one. I was sobbing uncontrollably and it was totally humiliating. I didn't know where to go or what to do. I realized that even if I get through all this and make it to Cadiz today (or tomorrow at this point), those people don’t know me and will not be a comfort to me.

I called my dad, which is usually the last thing I would do in any situation where I'm stuck, ever. He told me to calm down and that he would buy me a new ticket, which he did. I went and stood in line for a couple hours with some of the rudest, most obnoxious people ever. I don't care how much crap people talk about Americans; at least they understand the concept of lines. Here, it has something to do with priority but no one is ever allowed to announce his or her priority. If you try to assert your priority, some well-dressed French bitch will stick her arm in front of you casually and flirt with her asshole boyfriend. But I finally did it, and I'm going to finally get out of this airport. And it's going to be so great.