(no subject)

It's about time I started writing about my trip!

Day 1

Arrived at school at 4:30 (PM, not in the morning) in my bright orange group t-shirt. Upon arriving at the school we had to pile all the luggage onto the school bus. I found Jackie and Lisa in the group. All of us were so excited! Then we got onto the other bus and left the school.

I made a new friend before I even left Chicago. Because all the other seats were full I ended up sitting with Trisha. I learned that she was a junior at East. We had a lot of fun talking.

We arrived at O'Hare, checked our bags, went through security (which was a real bitch), and got our tickets. I became extremely excited at that point because we were going to be flying on British Airways and were going to have a flight change in London!!!

We had an 8:40 flight. I was excited because all of the crew had British accents. And a really cute British guy sat in the seat in front of me. I was happy. Lisa, Jackie, and I didn't get seated next to each other on the plane. But, it did turn out that I had a seat right next to Trisha. We became very disappointed upon finding out that you didn't get peanuts on British Airways flights. You get sour cream and chive pretzel nuggets.

The flight was 7 hours long. I tried to sleep, but I didn't get anymore than 2 hours of sleep at most. I remember constantly fading in and out of consciousness. Sleeping on a plane is sooo uncomfortable.

We arrived in London and spent an exciting 1/2 hour in London airport. We didn't do anything there, but it was exciting just because we were in London. We then had a 2 hour flight to Madrid. The take-off was delayed because of a "minor technical difficulty". They needed to call a repairman to look at something. That made me feel really safe. Not. But, it must have been fixed properly because we made it to Madrid in one piece.

Upon arrival in Madrid we met our tour guide, Abeed. He ended up being really cool and the group became quite attached to him by the end of the trip. We made our way to the hotel and checked in. I roomed with Jackie and Lisa the whole trip.

We took the metro, which is just like the subway, into one of the main parts of the city. For dinner Abeed took our group to "El Museo del Jamon" a resturant which specializes in, you guessed it, Spanish ham. The meal had been ordered for all of us. We recieved a great disappointment when we found out that the meal was chicken and not the expected ham. The food was alright, but the service at the place was crap. They were totally unprepared for the group.

After dinner we went for a quick look around the Plaza Mayor, which is like the town square. By that time we were extremely tired, so we didn't stay out for long.

Back at the hotel Lisa, Jackie, and I were more than a little crabby. We were a bit disappointed in Madrid, because it was just like any other huge, loud, dirty city (with the exception that it was covered in more graffiti than most cities). We were unsure how the trip was going to turn out. We were not happy campers when we went to bed. I think it was the jet-lag getting to us though, because we had a blast on the rest of the trip.

When I have time I'll post about the next day, in which we toured Madrid and Toledo.

(no subject)

It's about time I started writing about my trip!

Day 1

Arrived at school at 4:30 (PM, not in the morning) in my bright orange group t-shirt. Upon arriving at the school we had to pile all the luggage onto the school bus. I found Jackie and Lisa in the group. All of us were so excited! Then we got onto the other bus and left the school.

I made a new friend before I even left Chicago. Because all the other seats were full I ended up sitting with Trisha. I learned that she was a junior at East. We had a lot of fun talking.

We arrived at O'Hare, checked our bags, went through security (which was a real bitch), and got our tickets. I became extremely excited at that point because we were going to be flying on British Airways and were going to have a flight change in London!!!

We had an 8:40 flight. I was excited because all of the crew had British accents. And a really cute British guy sat in the seat in front of me. I was happy. Lisa, Jackie, and I didn't get seated next to each other on the plane. But, it did turn out that I had a seat right next to Trisha. We became very disappointed upon finding out that you didn't get peanuts on British Airways flights. You get sour cream and chive pretzel nuggets.

The flight was 7 hours long. I tried to sleep, but I didn't get anymore than 2 hours of sleep at most. I remember constantly fading in and out of consciousness. Sleeping on a plane is sooo uncomfortable.

We arrived in London and spent an exciting 1/2 hour in London airport. We didn't do anything there, but it was exciting just because we were in London. We then had a 2 hour flight to Madrid. The take-off was delayed because of a "minor technical difficulty". They needed to call a repairman to look at something. That made me feel really safe. Not. But, it must have been fixed properly because we made it to Madrid in one piece.

Upon arrival in Madrid we met our tour guide, Abeed. He ended up being really cool and the group became quite attached to him by the end of the trip. We made our way to the hotel and checked in. I roomed with Jackie and Lisa the whole trip.

We took the metro, which is just like the subway, into one of the main parts of the city. For dinner Abeed took our group to "El Museo del Jamon" a resturant which specializes in, you guessed it, Spanish ham. The meal had been ordered for all of us. We recieved a great disappointment when we found out that the meal was chicken and not the expected ham. The food was alright, but the service at the place was crap. They were totally unprepared for the group.

After dinner we went for a quick look around the Plaza Mayor, which is like the town square. By that time we were extremely tired, so we didn't stay out for long.

Back at the hotel Lisa, Jackie, and I were more than a little crabby. We were a bit disappointed in Madrid, because it was just like any other huge, loud, dirty city (with the exception that it was covered in more graffiti than most cities). We were unsure how the trip was going to turn out. We were not happy campers when we went to bed. I think it was the jet-lag getting to us though, because we had a blast on the rest of the trip.

When I have time I'll post about the next day, in which we toured Madrid and Toledo.