WE MADE IT!

Hola!

Where to begin…well, on Monday afternoon, we discovered our Tuesday afternoon flight to Chicago was cancelled. After desperately booking a 7:35 am flight for Tuesday morning, we all began frantically packing and finished just in time to get a new phone call that our new flight to Chicago was also cancelled. YAY!! The following two hours were spent on the phone with British Airways (thanks moms) to find out the next available flight to Barcelona was on Thursday FROM DALLAS at 6 pm. Fortunately, Katie's mom was already headed to Texas that day. Even though the excitement was put on hold, we were thankful for two more days with our families and friends! Praise the Lord for His perfect timing!

Thursday morning, we all said our tearful goodbyes and somehow managed to fit all six suitcases (50 pounds each of course) into Katie's mom's car. Once in the airport, we met Ramon. YAY AGAIN! He was the suitcase nazi who allowed no more than 50 pounds-on the dot-in each suitcase. Katie was the girl standing in the airport stuffing her carry on with the extra five pounds. Then we met security… Brynne got her peanut butter confiscated (she's still bitter), and Meagan got her miralax tested (they thought it was cocaine). However, we made it on our flight and met up with our great friend, Michelle, on the way!



Our 9 1/2 hour flight did not provide the entertainment we expected (aka no tv's on the back of the seats and no wifi). Katie slept basically the entire flight. The guy next to Meagan slept with a blanket over his head the whole time and spoke no english. Brynne listened to some girl's life story and made friends with the guy next to her by doing a crossword puzzle. Our flight landed two hours late, so we had 55 minutes until our flight took off in Madrid. Fortunately, we're the current reigning speed-walking champs of Oklahoma, so we made it across the entire airport, through customs AND security, and sped walked right on the plane. However, the second we sat down in the last row of the plane (remember we booked this flight two days before), we all passed out before take off.

Friday afternoon (Spain time), we arrived in Barcelona at last! Our suitcases were the first off the carousel, and our ride was waiting for us right outside the baggage claim. We are so thankful for the Lord's guidance in every step of this journey. There were unexpected situations that only He could handle so perfectly! Also, thank you for all the prayers for safe travels!!

Our program director got us all settled into our apartment, and don't worry, we immediately got to work making it feel like home and started unpacking. Then, we rode the Metro (for the first time) to the program's welcoming event. After a long 21 hours of travel and not much food, we weren't exactly in the mood to try Spain's authentic cuisine, but we did…which led us to Burger King.

We returned to our apartment with more excitement for a shower than ever in our lives. Turns out, the water was 2 degrees, literally. Since our showering experience didn't live up to our expectations, we were even more excited to get a good night of sleep. After an episode of Gossip Girl, we all cozied up under our one single solitary sheet (notice the lack of reference to comforters, blankets, anything warm…because we chose to use our 50 pounds on what we thought was necessary…clothes). We went to sleep at 1, well really only Meagan. By 2:30, we were all awake because of the loud street and freezing cold air whipping through our one sheet. Our teeth were chattering, and hands were numb (the remote to our heater has now been found and all is well). We finally fell asleep around 5 and woke up ready to explore the city.

 Today, we discovered many new places in Barcelona. From the Sagrada Famalia to the super market around the corner (watch video for live footage) to the cute cafe we found for lunch, our day was full of adventure! Including the many stares we got as we left the super market with many bags in hand because we ignored the minor detail that the culture is to go to the super market for each day here. After lunch, we went exploring around the city and came upon Barcelona's version of 5th Avenue! We spent our afternoon finding new stores and restaurants that we hope to frequent!


We can already tell that we are going to love this city and that it will be the perfect home for the next four months! The people are so welcoming, and we're excited to see what the Lord has in store!

Love and miss you all already!
Brynne, Katie & Meagan


Copy and paste this link for live footage!! http://youtu.be/IEgvd2arwoY