Wow, has this past week been quite the roller coaster. As you all know, Ben is here for almost all of April! He arrived safely, which is great because I realized thirty minutes before his train got in that we had not talked about any back up plans for if he missed flights, etc. Obviously, we were thrilled to see each other, and I cannot put into words how happy I was that I was finally able to see him face to face. I missed him before, but once I saw him I realized how much I had really missed him. It took us about 20 minutes to start walking because we would not let go of each other.
I spent the next four days showing Ben everything we could see in Alicante. Of course we climbed the castle and went to the beach, and I loved showing Ben all the random things that I spent the last 3 months telling him over the phone. It was a lot of, "Remember when I told you I was here, well here it is..." After my Tuesday class, Be
n and I headed to mi casa for him to meet mi madre and mi familia, and of course, have Paella! Mi madre LOVED Ben, and he was able to communicate great. In fact, I think it surprised mi madre a little bit how well Ben could talk in Spanish. We had great chicken Paella, different types of cheese, salad, bread, wine, and coffee and cookies for dessert. It was a HUGE meal, and a great way for Ben to try very local food. Kay was there the entire afternoon, and Maria Carmen, Claudia, and Fransisco ended up coming home in time to meet Ben. Mi madre was so generous, and she just kept telling Ben that he was like a son to her, it was sweet : )My birthday was GREAT! I had a test that morning, but it was over quickly. After spending some more time with mi madre, Ben and I headed to the beach to play some volleyball and meet my friends for some ice cream sundaes, eaten out of my trophy! Everyone brought something different... ice cream, cookies, whipped cream, sprinkles, strawberries. It was like one huge, never ending bowl of ice cream. What
a great compromise for the lack of ice cream birthday cakes in Spain! I was so glad Ben got to meet all of my friends here, especially before everyone headed off to different parts of Europe for our spring break.ALmost all of Thursday in Alicante was spent with mi madre and getting ready to head to other parts of Europe. Before we knew it, Friday morning had arrived and we had to be at the airport at 5:45 A.M.... and then things went downhill from there...
The Ryanair folks kindly informed us of their 15 kg weight policy that clearly was not working well with Ben and I's plan of throwing all of our stuff in one bag. After the lady told us we would have to pay over 115 Euros in extra baggage fees, we opted just to take a train. It was awful, but not the end of the world, other than we were VERY tired at that point, and the sun was just coming up. We took a bus from the airport to Alicante, and bought our train tickets. We had coffee at mi casa, and said goodbye to mi madre yet again. Everything went smoothly, and we both slept well on the train ride to Madrid. We thought that our long, frustrating morning had turned out well after all. Then we got back to the hotel and I found that I didn't have my wallet. Of course, I immediately realized that I had been robbed. Hind sight is always 20-20... I remembered the walk to our hotel and a woman and her daughter getting really close and brushing up against me while we were walking. Looking back on it, I remember thinking it was odd because they had tons of space on the sidewalk, and I even looked at the woman and made eye contact with her. I would bet everything in my stolen wallet that it happened at that point, but I guess I cannot be 100% positive. But whatever did happen, I lost my passport (goodbye sweet Africa and Spain Visas ), 215 Euros, 2 credit cards, a school ID, and a memory card. Of course when Ben and I realized this I was panicking and pacing and crying and not knowing what to do. Luckily, my boyfriend is amazing and really smart when I am dumb. In the mid
dle of all my hysterics, he was telling me what to do. I called my Dad, who helped me cancel the credit cards, and Ben got the numbers and directions to all the different places we needed to go... the police station and the American-Spanish embassy. It was a long next few hours, and of course as we were running through busy Madrid, it started HAILING, no joke. It was very hectic, and I felt awful because there was no way Ben and I could make it to Lisbon, Portugal the next morning, since I didn't have a passport. My parents were great, and helped us find and buy a new flight, and figure out what to do. The whole day was a disaster.Things started looking better the rest of the weekend. We formulated a plan for Monday (tomorrow, please pray!), and hopefully I can walk in and get a new passport and take our flight to Lisbon, and make it to our cruise on time. We have to be there at 3:30 P.M., so tomorrow will be a race against the clock, if anything fails to go perfectly smooth.
Madrid was great though, for what we did get to enjoy! We went to the Reina Sofia and the Museo de Arte Thyssen, and walked around the town a bit. It was a hectic, stressful weekend, and I am lucky Ben is with me, and that he didn't decide to just go on ahead to Lisbon without me! We both decided we are very fortunate though, and to be optimistic about the whole thing... 1. At least nobody got hurt. 2 We happen to be in the city with the U.S. embassy and 3. We would rather be stuck here together than be in the states apart.
So everybody pray that things go well tomorrow! and have a very Happy Easter!
Oh and Ben says, "Hola Amigos!"
Sarah that sounds like the worst day ever. I am glad Ben was there to make sense of things. I would have been exactly like you and freak out instead of actually thinking. I miss you lots and tell Ben I said hi and I hope you two have the most amazing time.
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