Sunday, February 3, 2013

I'm so Bored that I collected my luggage at the airport

Ok, so that title is super lame, and this post is waaaay overdue, but I promised to tell y'all about my luggage, so here goes:

I got off the plane in Palma, desperately tired, completely lost, and repeating the Spanish word for luggage to myself over and over in case I needed to ask somebody for directions.
Equipaje, equipaje...

As I rounded my first corner, I realized that the airport was completely full of slanted walkways and that my leg was falling off.

And I don't have a fairy Godmother...
I really didn't want to stop, since I was extremely tired and had no cellphone, thus no way of contacting my host mom to tell her that I would be late, so I spent the next 30 minutes or so hobbling across the airport carrying my backpack and still muttering "equipaje" to myself.

Oh, Herbie, how I miss thee
I finally reached baggage claim, but instantly realized that, unlike in the Memphis airport, people coming to pick up friends and relatives can't enter the baggage claim area. So I was going to have to get my baggage by myself.
Kind of regretting the amount of baggage I brought now
I wandered around aimlessly until I found the baggage area for my flight, since there didn't seem to be any recognizable system, only to discover that only one of my three bags was there.

In very broken Spanish, I asked an attendant where the rest of my luggage might be and he told me that sometimes stuff gets randomly split up and sent to the international baggage claim area.

This map seems to work equally well for bus systems and the Palma airport
I found my luggage in the international area, after all, which was awesome, except for the fact that it weighs more than me* and was moving faster than I can walk**, so it took me a while to chase it down and drag it off the conveyor belt.

I had found a cart already for my smaller suitcase, but I had to get a second one for my larger bags. I tried putting the suitcases on the cart, but they were pretty heavy, so I ended up falling over.

I spent close to 15 minutes sitting on the floor trying to arrange my luggage on the carts. 
Finally, I had everything arranged. I stood up and pushed the two carts towards the exit, which, since I was now stuck in the international section, meant going through customs.

The customs officer stopped me and asked me something in Spanish. I still have no idea what he said. I said, "¿Qué?" and he repeated the question in English, I'm assuming. I still had no idea what he said, so then he asked me if I spoke either language.

I responded, "Los dos, un poco."

Yes, I told the Spanish customs officer that I don't really speak any language at all...
He looked at me askance, I said I was tired (in Spanish), and he let me pass.

Needless to say, I eventually found my poor host mom, who had been waiting an hour, and she mercifully took me home, fed me, and let me go to bed without much conversation.

Although she did make fun of me for bringing so much luggage.

Bored Game Time!

Answer: Catalan, or Mallorquin, as they call it here. Move forward 5 spaces if you knew that.

Question: How many hours ahead am I currently of CST?

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