Even the Best Laid Plans…

First, I would like to let everyone know that I have arrived safely in Seville and am currently with my other program participants staying in a hotel until we get our homestay families later this week,  this would be the fantastic news. However, getting here was quite the adventure, as they say “even the best laid plans go awry”.

My flights had been planned in a way so that I would have about an hour between each flight. This would be enough time to change planes/terminals but not so much time that I would be waiting around in an airport for too long. But this Plan never even got off the ground as 5 minutes before boarding my first flight from PHL to Boston, we were informed that somehow the Pilot’s departure time was listed as a hour later than our scheduled 3:15 departure. And in 30 seconds my plan went from solid to crumbled so I did what any younger sibling would do (especially when you have an experienced traveler as an older sister) I called Olivia. Though I’m sure I eventually would have come to this decision myself — she instructed me to go to customer service and see if I could get another flight. Thankfully, I was able too. Both my friend whom I was traveling with and myself were placed on a direct flight PHL to Madrid. Furthermore, they were also able to change our connecting flight the only caveat being that our layover in Madrid would be 10 hours.

The flight itself was not bad, I was able to catch up on movies that wanted to see though there was one scare when a passenger had some sort of medical emergency towards the end of the flight. But as far as I know, due to the aid of another passenger who was a nurse, everyone was okay. And even I will admit of all the airports to have a 10 hour layover Madrid’s was not too bad. We mostly slept (as some of you know I have the ability to fall asleep anywhere, in what should be uncomfortable positions) and walked around the various high end stores. Our last flight was not even an hour long so I can’t complain there either.

So after almost a full days’ worth of traveling we touched down in Sevilla, only to find out that our luggage did not make it here with us. I’m not exactly sure where my luggage is, Philadelphia said they would re-route it for us and I can only hope that it gets here sometime soon. What I can say is, I’m glad I listened to my mom and put extra clothes and things in my carry-on because the airline did not seem sure when they would be able to get my luggage to me.

Hopefully, your day has been smoother sailing than mine but even if it hasn’t just laugh it off, that’s what I’ve been doing, and boy does it help.

-Victoria