Day 1 - Culture Shock

We made it to Barcelona!! It only took 2 days and a sleep over at Heathrow Airport in London, but we made it. It has been a long few days and as soon as we touched down in our hostel, we slept for a solid 8 hours. We certainly had our interesting experiences with getting here though.

The first 'fun' experience was getting through Heathrow Airport. We did not realize that it closed down at night and our flight was the last one to land. We got in at 11pm and were stuck sleeping in a lounge area. It was extremely uncomfortable and neither of us were really able to sleep at all. We were able to charge our phones which allowed the time to go by a little faster since we played a lot of Bejeweled. This was just half of the fun though. So as we went through customs, which was extremely easy and we were not questioned at all...did not even have to show our proof of our return trip within 3 months, the custom agent told us something about the airport reopening at 5am. We were so tired and did not really think anything of it, so when we went to find the train between terminals (since Heathrow is HUGE) we found out that they stopped running. Our flight left at 6:20am and we did not want to risk missing it. So we checked around and found out that we would be able to take a taxi to Terminal 5. When we went to find a taxi, none of them were 'on'. They were all lined up as to be waiting for the morning rush, and all the taxi drivers were sleeping in their cars. So we hesitantly walked up to the very first car and tapped on the window. He woke up and said he could take us to the correct terminal. 15 minutes later, we arrive at Terminal 5. I proceed to hand him the cab fare of 20.....Euros. Oh, that's right, the English use pounds and we do not have any since we did think we were going to buy anything there. So once the cab driver lets us know that: 1. He doesn't take Euros and 2. The English don't want anything to do with that mess... we settle on giving him 40 euros. We overpaid by a little bit but got to Terminal 5 three hours before it opened, and again waited in those extremely uncomfortable seats until the airport opened.

Six hours later, we arrived in Barcelona, Spain. It was 9:30am and we were exhausted! We make our way to customs, again nervous for no reason. We went straight through to claim our luggage. Overwhelmed by all of the new signs and excitement of actually being in Spain, we realize that we only have 2 out of our 4 pieces of luggage. We wait for the carousal to stop before panicking. Then it stops and we still only have 2 out of our 4 and of course the two that we do not have our Erin's. So Rob goes around to every single luggage carousal to see if somehow they just did not make it to ours and find nothing. We go to the "Lost Luggage" area and are able to talk with the desk. They speak English, which we were extremely thankful for! But we are here to learn and be fluent in Spanish. They notify us that the bags are being sent on the next flight and that we will get them later in the evening. Needless to say we thought it was a sign that maybe this trip was not a good idea. They luggage did come, but did not come until we got back from dinner around 11:30pm.

Now dinner was when the culture shock really hit us the hardest. It was a nice little bar and cafe close to our hostel and no one really understood English. We did our best messing up Spanish while ordering and finally settled on vino and paella con chicken (with chicken). We did not pick our the wine, but our server came back with a full bottle which we were not ready for. We sat awhile talking about how excited we are and all the work that we have to do in order to get completely settled here, i.e. jobs, apartment, food. After about 30 minutes our food comes out. It was definitely paella with chicken, but it also had oysters, clams, and full shrimp..heads, eyes, tails, legs and all. I looked at Erin and thought she was going to cry, but surprisingly, she dug right in and we ate as much as we could. Turns out that you have to specify if you do not want seafood in the paella in Barcelona, otherwise all their paella comes with it. We finished as much as we could of our paella and wine and our server asks if we want something that neither of use understand. We already paid our bill so all I figured to say was "No comprende" (I don't understand) and the server walks away. About 5 minutes later, since the Spanish really, really take their time..he comes back with a bottle and pours us two shots of a liquor de cafe which Erin says is kind of like their 'night cap drink' we sip, hoping we don't get charged and it was delicious. As we leave the server says thank you about 5 times, we say thank you back just as many and we leave feeling like our first night went very well. We spent more than expected considering the cost of the paella was double what was listed, but feel like we learned so much. I think that the Spaniards will be friendly, but we will have to adjust to their way of life and customs. We will do our best to communicate in their language and live as they do. We are so excited, but know that we will have to put a lot of work in if we want to find jobs and an apartment so that we will stay the full year that we hope for.