The Spanish Diary

Thursday, November 18, 2010

The Spanish Diary

After listening to Aaliaa howling and crying on the phone asking me not to leave

5:42 am

Kjevic Airport, Kristiansand

Left home quarter to 4:00am to stand outside in the welcoming cold of dawn just a few meters away from the house. Rahul, as always, woke up ahead to get tea ready, helped me do the last minute extra packing and takes care of organizing my tickets, passports etc. He loves trips, flights, booking tickets etc. He gets excited over pretty big buses or long tunnels. I, however, just want to get over it and go home. The bus, came 5 mins. late, but my time alone outside after Rahul dropped me ( he had to go back right away to make  sure Aaliaa won’t freak out when she wakes up into an empty house) provided me a beginning of a sense of clarity. Early mornings are always cleansing to the soul. When I started praying for blessings for people I left behind, my family and the school, the street lamp clicked and became extra brighter. It can either be a technical freak event or a silent acknowledgment that I am heard.

The bus driver went out of his way to open the door for me and offered to help carry my baggage. I bought  a return ticket to save extra cash. Rahul is always pleased when we always do everything we can to go for a promo or save some cash. Well, I did that to make him happy. I started my trip feeling a little dizzy, suddenly shut inside a warm bus without breeze or windows open. Coming from 15 minutes of cold oxygen overload, it was sudden shift. Oh there were a lot of turns and twists and turn abouts, but the one hour and a half trip, was a trip of clarity, I have been thinking how blessed I am to be able to have moments reach out and be there for students or people . I have been thinking of everyone’s wonderful sides and suddenly overwhelmed with the love of my family and families. I felt blessed and lucky.

*** Boarded the plane to OSLO somewhere here***

Then I reached the airport and saw ATM looking machines everywhere and people were operating it and getting the stubs and sticking it in their bags. It was A SELF-SERVICE CHECK IN!!! Yes, that sticker that goes to your baggage comes from there as well as the boarding pass and you book your seat choice in that same machine as well. In the departure area, the only thing waiting before the passengers before exit, is a boarding pass scanner which we should do ourselves as well as a thumbprint scanning machine. This reminds me now of the machine we newly got for the library in the school. This country has high trust level. Impressive.

It’s getting warmer.. one hour to BARCELONA..

To continue..

Beyond all these high tech stuff, what truly impressed me was the 711 ( the chain of shops around the world) 45-50ish looking woman behind the cash register. She was tall, looked physically very strong, had a short dark brown with blond highlighted hair, grinned a lot, was so sprighty, talked to the kids with their parents getting some sandwich and entertained them. She would thank them with a lot of sunshine in her face and tone of voice , even though it was snowing outside. Then it was my turn. Yes, I was treated no different from the ones before me, male, female, old, young, white or brown. I thought the airlines should’ve hired her instead of the few too serious ones. If I may borrow the Indian expression –she is FIRST CLASS!

 Speaking of airline hosts, I am pleased with this side of the world to see air hostess in their 50’s. They have strong labor unions and are age and gender sensitive. Very very evolved. Our island’s ( yes, I like owning the island we live in – Hisøy) bust driver, and I tell you, it’s a HUGE bus, is a woman in her 50’s as well. Oh she looks fragile and graceful, confident and humble, very friendly and peaceful.

I am now typing aboard SAS flight to Barcelona. This economy flight, does not serve food! Yes, you have to buy it, just like those budget Cebu Pacific flights from Singapore to Manila. The sandwiches ranged from 85 kroner (about P600 plus) to a 100kr. but that’s okay because that’s how much it is in regular restaurants anyway. I ordered a small bottle of orange juice ( 25kr. about P 150) I brought a box of cookies with me in my bag and my previous domestic flight from Kristiansand to Oslo gave me a cold wheat bread sandwich with pepperoni, egg and a piece of wilted leaf on it as well as a small packet of orange juice. I am thinking of getting lunch at around 11.30pm or just wait until the Barcelona airport in another hour and find myself some Spanish food. 

I am watching people moving around now, standing chatting to people in the aisle. It is quite an interesting sight for a 4-hour flight. I could imagine seeing that in a flight from India, except that here, it is very rare and almost never could I hear people speak publicly in a loud voice. The last time I heard it here in Norway, was a Filipina on a phone speaking in tagalong to someone and the entire bus could hear the conversation!

Well, well, I am not hungry yet, but I have some documents to read before the big days. I am thinking how to get to the hotel from the airport but I will ask around. I don’t want to be ripped or lost, but who knows, ya know, Philippines borrowed a lot of stuffs from Spain. The blanket of the quilty thick clouds beneath us is SO beautiful especially when the sun rose from beneath it and above it. I tried quickly clicking a snap of it.

 This in flight magazine ( Scandinavian Panorama) here is interesting, I especially love the article about Paris. I have always wanted to live in France for a few years, but let’s see. Paris is definitely in the list of places to visit, and now I have a more guilt free reason since Aaliaa has got to see Disneyland! Signing out for now and will come back when I have some action happening again.

*** Signing out***

SEVILLA, ESPAŇA

7:30pm. Here I am finally with a WIFI, managed to have dinner ( no food served in two flights) after going to many floors, calling a few numbers and going out to find a place to eat. Also, after my many misadventures in getting myself a toothpaste, Google translate saved me with PASTA DENTRIFICA.

My airport experiences were pretty unique, met a Filipino sitting beside me in the Oslo airport and another Filipino again sitting beside me, also at the departure are in Barcelona.

I also did not know that I was sitting beside a fellow MYP Coordinator in the plane and happened to stand waiting beside 2 other MYP Coordinators and 2 workshop leaders. Not only that, I met the only fellow state run school coordinator in Southern Norway. He was very kind and friendly and is from South Africa. Listening to them chat with other coordinators from Ukraine and Jordan made me feel not so alone in my challenges all these years. I realized that he had many and much more bigger challenges. And, what is worth noting, is that they were just around my age and even younger. They are out there providing school visits for accreditation and leading workshops for the Europe, Middle East and Africa group. I couldn’t complain I’m tired anymore, can I? They were parents too.

Anyway, I was SO pleased that I managed to converse with the taxi driver and the receptionist with my very little Spanish. Ya know, a few “donde esta es..”  “Yo no se”  “ por favor, gracias” “ cuantos?” “ dies y otso” “ ahora” “ aqui” “ dos botelyas” “ agua” etc. I am coming back here to Spain with Rahul and Aaliaa in December, so I still have a few more weeks to improve my Spanish!

Arriving in Barcelona with the sun that is actually warm and hearing the people laughing or conversing so passionately in Spanish, made me feel a familiar air. Right at the very start when the airport announcement gave a loud and crisp QUARENTA Y CINCO, UNO, UNO, UNO QUATRO! I felt right at home, right away.

I am spending my evening forcing myself to sleep, it’s been more than 48 hours now that I had many shallow interrupted naps and no straight deep sleep. My remaining hours will be spent reading as many pages as I can with this 2 inch thick set of documents. I tried reading in between flights, but the remaining pages doesn’t seem to get thinner by the hour.

So, Buenas noches mi amigos y mi amigas! Hasta luego a la mañana!

I enjoyed using today what I learned in Mexico 20 years ago.. “ Lo siento pero no hablo muy bien el Español. “