I guess we made it, or at least we made it this far, and it all looks good from here.

*This blog was delayed, too. So much for free public wi-fi.

Local Time: 8:50 AM
CA Time: 11:50 PM

It would be nice if I could find an internet connection so that I could post these… because my attempts in New York definitely failed. Anyway - I’m here in Madrid, in a strangely dead airport terminal, not sure of which gate is mine. I DID ask, Mom - they just don’t know yet. Weird, right? Anyway, my flight’s not for another three hours or so, so I’ve got time. I figured I’ll sit here where it’s peaceful and then go back to the strange airport country where no one speaks English. Seriously - I mean I know it’s Spain and all, and I know this is going to sound so stupid-American of me… but I figured, it being a rather large hub of an international airport, the staff might be bilingual. No such luck. But we’ve all gotten fairly good at sign language around here. (Yes, ‘we’. I am now apparently a local.)

You’ll be pleased to know that I did sleep on the flight over here. It wasn’t as long as I anticipated - only about 7 hours. I probably slept for about 3, I think... I actually can’t remember. I was kind of in and out the whole time. The sun had already set in New York by the time we left at 7 last night (“last night” - wow, that sounds weird), so even though I had a window seat, the sky was black out the whole time. Oh my goodness, though - flying over New York at night = death by beauty. America’s coastlines are incredible.

Oh, guess what? Wonder of wonders - I had empty seats next to me AGAIN! This time there were TWO empty ones, and I had the window seat. I guess people booking tickets just really didn’t like me… if they were psychics… maybe. It could happen.

Okay, wait. Either there was just a slight earthquake or I’m crazy. Or sleep-deprived. Umm…. Nothing’s moving. Great… now I’m crazy.

…er.

Back to the plane. It took me awhile to fall asleep, especially after they served dinner once we hit our cruising altitude, and I… had coffee… yeah, in retrospect, not a great plan for sleeping. Anyway, it worked eventually. The fellow across the aisle from me was also the only one in his row, and he discovered what to do pretty early on - push up the arm rests, grab a blanket, lay down and go OUT like a light - and I followed suit after a while. Except I wasn’t nearly as good at it as he was… like I said, I was kinda in and out the whole time. I kept having really weird dreams - about people I used to work for, talking to me in weird accents, and some girl whose face was laid on a table in sections… but she was TALKING! She wasn’t dead. It was like a robot or something. I don’t know what American Airlines puts in their coffee.

I woke up eventually at about 6:30 AM, Madrid-time, when the captain put the ‘seatbelts on’ sign again. It was on most of the time, because we were always in a little bit of turbulence - but we sleepers didn’t take much note of it for the majority of the flight. The odd thing about that time was, I knew that the captain had said we were landing in Madrid at 7:15ish, which was coming up… but the sky outside was still black! I wonder what time the sun comes up in Ireland; that’ll be interesting. Because it didn’t end up coming up this morning until a bit after 7. Which worked out fine, because we didn’t land until nearly 8 anyway. And the sunrise over Spain - AHGHGHHHHHH. Why does beauty kill me?! This is not boding well for my health. It was amazing though, because finally at about 7, even though the sky was still black, I started to see city lights below. Except Spain’s cities aren’t like New York's; New York is very geometrical in its layout. Everything is in proper rectangular blocks. Spain’s lights were all very linear, but in a free-handed sort of way. Each city had a central hub (I keep writing ‘hug’!), usually around a river, and then the lights all kind of spiraled out in a bunch of smaller arms, like each city was its own spiral-shaped galaxy. And then - glory be! - the sun came up. I got a picture, just so I could remember what it was like, but it wasn’t really like that at all. There’s just something unspeakably incredible about watching the sun come up from an aerial view. Plane’s are amazing for that anyway - giving everything the proper perspective, I mean.

Speaking of which, people these days are so lame. On the flight to New York, I was the ONLY passenger in my cabin who kept my window-shade open the whole time and looked out. Some people opened and closed theirs occasionally, but most just kept theirs closed and typed on their laptops or ipads or whatever. Ugh.

Anyway… probably not every post will be this rambly. I’m just bored and extremely tired. But I should go find out about my flight now. I wonder when I’ll get to post these? Probably once I’m in Ireland. Well, we’ll find out. Bye for now.