Well, i made it.
with all the friends and familz i have had abroad over the years, i have read manz emails typed on foriegn keyboards, and heard the same explanation apologiying for mistakes: it's the keyboard. well, i make a lot mistakes because i often type too fast to notice them, but let me tell you, besides navigating these sites in german, which i am doing mostlz by color and memory, since i have no german skills, these keyboards are just different enough to be totally annoying. so i apologize about the bad spelling and other mistakes. it's the keyboard.
in berlin, it was a long couple of days. i have discovered that i was well prepared with my packing: warm socks, hat and gloves, shampoo good (after two days on an airplane and running through airports, shampoo is a must); sink stopper for washing, towel and sleeping bag for cheaper hostel rates. i imagine that the list goes on and on, however i can't say for sure because i am reciting it from memory. i made it to berlin (just barely) but my bag didn't. after arriving in madrid 2 1/2 hours later due to snow in philadelphia, i just barely missed my flight to barcelona. the nice people at us airways reallz helped me out by getting me a ticket with a different airline to take a shuttle leaving every half an hour to barcelona from madrid, but first i had to spend a hour waiting to see if they had my backpack. no luck, so another half an hour to make a claim so it can be sent to me when they track it down. then i had to take the green bus to terminal 4 where i spent an hour standing in lines and talking to 7 different people in order to find where i was supposed to check in. what you need to know about this is that it took me an hour to get 5 minutes across the airport. my checkin center was in the back, down an unmarked hallway, and i suppose i am just no good at understanding directions in the broken english, half spanish that i was communicating in. anyway, by the time i got on that flight i realized that i would have about 5 minutes for checkin for my flight to berlin after arrival. this is not good, because if you miss an easyjet flight, that's it. no refund, no helpful staff finding you another flight, and besides that dana would be at the airport at 10:30 at night waiting for me. i ran. i ran, and since i had no luggage to check i threw myself, a good 5 minutes late for the final checkin time, on the mercy of the two women at the counter. i was given two steely glares, a reprimand for not being more than 40 minutes early for mý flight, and somehow miraculously a boarding pass. i was so stressed out at this point, not fully believeing that i would actually make it, that i wanted to cry, but i could only laugh at how close i had come and that i had actually made it. upon arrival, i looked around and couldnät find dana, but i tried not to panic as everything else had worked that day. i looked around, got some cash from the atm and was suddenlz attacked by the blonde dana girl i know and love, wearing a verz long, very russian winter coat.
we stayed up until 4:00am drinking beer.
