What up, what up, what up? Back again after another long break. Between college, vacations, and traveling, I haven't had much time to blog. Trust me, I've told myself how much of a *** I am for this bitter behavior. I have good news however.Let's start off with my vacation. As of yesterday I have been with my beautiful girlfriend Sofia for five months! I went and visited her in Madrid over the break for two weeks and truthfully can say I had the time of my life. Her family was more than accommodating and everything about the trip was fantastic. The only setback was my 39 hour adventure in John F. Kennedy airport.
I arrived at 8:00 a.m. to beat the snow that was racing to New York quicker than Usain Bolt. Thankfully my mother had no problems traveling either way and made it home safely. I sat and watched my flight get delayed numerous times until about 8:00 p.m. when they officially canceled it. As angry as I was, I was understanding and was glad that they didn't attempt to fly in about 15 inches of snow. Then the real fun started.
My mother had booked a hotel room not far from the airport in Queens and I called the shuttle service. They told me to take the air-train to a location where a van sent by the hotel would pick me up. I waited 45 minutes for a train that was supposed to frequent JFK every five minutes. A man with a radio, who I assumed worked there, told us that the air-shuttle wasn't working because of the snow and a ground-shuttle would be available downstairs. Meanwhile, we had to walk in the 15 inches of snow in 10 degree weather with the winds hallowing close to 35 miles per hour. I sat right next to the door where this shuttle was supposed to pick us up. After about 2 and a half hours waiting for this shuttle, it was apparent that it was never going to come, and if it did, I would have arrived at the hotel too late. There was too much snow for cabs to come in, but there was one cab-van parked outside. I approached the man and asked him if he could go to the location of my hotel. He said he only traveled to Manhattan. I began to think, there's absolutely no way he could get to Manhattan and my hotel couldn't be more than 5 miles away. I offered him $100 to take me to the hotel, but he refused. I grabbed a cup of coffee at Starbucks, which I hate, and headed upstairs where I sat under a water fountain near a bathroom until 7 a.m. the next day.
They previously told us that the next flight to Madrid would take off at 11 a.m. which was encouraging. However, the airport readily alerted us that they would be closed until at least 12 p.m. Well, I had been waiting since 8 a.m. the previous morning, what's another 5 hours, right? 12 p.m. turned into 2, which turned into 4 p.m. As I sat in the boarding area, I stared at a plane that had my luggage that had been sitting there since yesterday thinking, "Am I ever going to leave?" It was sunny, and most of the snow had been plowed away so it was frustrating that we boarded at 9 p.m.
Having slept about an hour in the past two days, I fell asleep and woke up about two hours later, expecting to be somewhere over the Atlantic. However, the real estate I saw outside of the window was all too familiar. We were still at JFK and still parked where this plane had been for nearly 30 hours. The pilot came on, in Spanish, and told the passengers something I obviously couldn't understand. Nearly half of the passengers sighed and grumbled. Here came some more bad news. He alerted the rest of us non-Spanish speaking travelers that one of the engines was frozen and that they needed to run it until it became safe enough to take off. Again, what's another hour to me? I've been here for two days. Luckily it was only 30 minutes until we finally left New York.
The trip? Nothing short of amazing. I arrived in Madrid at about 1 p.m. and was greeted by my girlfriend's mother and sister, shortly followed by a hug and kiss I had longed for and waited nearly 5 months for. Despite being in a foreign country, far away from what I called home, I felt comfortable and within a matter of minutes felt that same comfort I felt at home. I met Sofia's family and they were all sincere and welcoming. The food was absolutely fantastic, and having developed picky habits in the States, I quickly became open to anything and everything. I tried everything and can honestly say I didn't have anything I didn't like. I've taken these habits back to America and now can enjoy a diet consisting of more than strictly pizza, wings, hot dogs, and bagels. Sofia showed me the entire city of Madrid and it was beautiful. I had lunch at the oldest restaurant in the world. We celebrated the New Year with her entire family, including cousins from Mexico and family from Barcelona. After two weeks I uttered a sad goodbye to her family and to my Sofia and boarded a plane back to New York.
I can say truthfully that I had the best time in Spain and I can't thank Sofia, her family, and my parents for giving me the opportunity to travel. It certainly won't be the last time I visit Madrid.
Well if you're still reading I'm impressed. And now I'm back in Springfield for my second semester of college. I bring good news to this blog and to my professional endeavors. I am currently talking with Jamario Moon's agency, Bell Management, in the beginning stages of developing an official website for Jamario. I had previously updated his former website, Apollo33.com, and plan to do the same for this site. I have no details yet, but clearly will keep everybody updated through this blog, my facebook page, and of course on twitter.
Stay Tuned! And God Bless!
Original Story:
http://www.theverdictblog.com/2011/01...
