I'm here!!!!

Hola from Espana!!!
I made it all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to Barcelona!! I'll tell ya, I feel like I'm in a dream. I'll just give you the run down of my day.

We (Mom, Dad, Anna, and Me) left the house in Lebanon this morning around 8:30 after I was doing some last minute stuffing into my suitcase and duffel bag. I got one last greasy unhealthy breakfast meal from McDonald's along with a large drink and we were on our way to Bowling Green to meet Daily. Both of my sisters are too sweet.. going along to send me off, taking off from work, and using an unexcused absence. But we were running super late, so we got to the house in Bowling Green, had a restroom break, and piled back in the car. Daily, miss world traveler herself, had a huge bag FULL of little things for me that she knew I would not get by without while abroad. Looking at the bag, I thought goodness there is no space for any of this. So here we go again, packing and unpacking both my suitcase, carry on, laptop bag, and purse. She's so sweet and thoughtful and knew the exact little snacks to help me get through the next month.. chips ahoy cookies, sour gummy worms, peanut butter crackers, nutella, along with a nice magazine, and a sweet sweet card that of course I teared up reading.
So as I am trying to fit all of these snacks and what not into my carry on, mom is zooming to Nashville because we are of course running late. We get there, park, and get me checked in. The airport was a little CRAZY. There had just been a chess championship with over 5300 kids and also a cheerleading competition, so you could imagine....chaos. So then it is time for goodbyes so I can get in this incredibly long line. We take pictures of course and I call for a group hug.. well of course here come the tears, but I somehow managed to hold it together and not get too crazy. Mom and dad walk me to my line as if they were going to go all the way through with me, but then venture off. I'm standing there literally shaking in my feet, because I was terrified, nervous, and sad all mixed into one. I look over and there is Mom, Dad, Daily, and Anna still standing there waiting on me to be out of sight before they leave. We keep waving back and forth until I finally moved through the line. I will tell you this, I also looked like a complete idiot, because here I am standing here with a huge duffel bag, my laptop bag which is stuffed, and my purse. I am clearly struggling to keep it all together and carry it at the same time. (Lesson learned for sure about that one!) Funny part is: mom and Daily both told me I shouldn't take all that, ha ooops, but it's worked, I got here all in one piece.

Kenzie and I get Auntie Anne's pretzels in the airport before the flight.. another greasy, yet scrumptious American food. We begin to board the plane and take off. This flight wasn't too bad at all. We flew straight to New York for our ned straight flight to Barcelona!! We got to NY with just enough time to charge my phone a little and get a drink. Before I knew it, we were boarding again, but this time for good. All the way to Barcelona... 7 hours! This plane was HUGE and I was a little nervous! The flight was okay, except I only got about an hour of sleep the whole way...due to being uncomfortable, crying babies, and they kept serving us food, which I'm not complaining about. So we arrive in Barcelona at 6:30am and go straight to get our baggage. From the minute we stepped off the plane we were all getting some stares, which was quite funny. Our wonderful host contact, Kristen, meets us and takes us to our bus, which took us about 30 minutes away to the school to meet our families! Imagine this... 17 WKU students walking down the BUSY streets of Barcelona with loads of suitcases not knowing where or what the heck we were doing. It was quite entertaining.. and not to mention dangerous.. the people drive crazy over here!

So I am now literally 3 minutes away from the school with my wonderful host family, Jordi and Ane in their very nice apartment. I am all unpacked, showered, and getting settled. Ane and I are about to go out and run some errands around town and show me around a little. We have an orientation tonight at the school where we will get lots of great info and I will get to meet the two kids of Jordi and Ane's. They are Jordi (7) and Naora (5).

I absolutely love it here already and am super excited for the next 4 weeks!!! My family is SO welcoming and wonderful, telling me to just make myself at home!

I still just can't believe how unbelievably blessed I am to be here and have this opportunity!

Well.. you will here from me soon..I'm going to explore Barcelona!!!!
Adios!!

ps (that's definitely one thing I need to improve on...my spanish speaking skills) :))

Have a very happy and blessed day!